It pays to check your spam email folder.
A Michigan woman learned she had won a $3 million Mega Millions prize when checking her email, WXYZ-TV reported. Spears’ winning numbers -- 02-05-30-46-61 -- were drawn in the Dec. 31, 2021, contest and earned her the $1 million prize, Michigan Lottery officials said in a news release. Because she chose the Megaplier option, Spears’ prize was tripled to $3 million.
Spears bought her winning ticket online at MichiganLottery.com.
“I saw an ad on Facebook that the Mega Millions jackpot was getting pretty high, so I got on my account and bought a ticket,” Spears said in a statement. “A few days later, I was looking for a missing email from someone, so I checked the spam folder in my email account.”
At first, Spears was skeptical. After all, this was a spam folder.
“I saw an email from the Lottery saying I had won a prize. I couldn’t believe what I was reading, so I logged in to my Lottery account to confirm the message in the email,” Spears said. “It’s all still so shocking to me that I really won $3 million!”
Spears said she plans to share her winnings with her family and retire earlier. She said she also tweaked her email settings.
“I definitely added the Michigan Lottery to my safe senders list just in case I ever get lucky enough to receive another email about a huge prize,” Spears said.