Michigan woman almost missed out on her $3 million lottery prize — all because the email ended up in spam

The spam folder is essentially meant to be ignored, but sometimes doing so may cost users. As in the case of a Michigan woman who found $3 million sitting in her junk folder. Back in early 2022, Laura Spears of Oakland County won a $3 million lottery and found the lottery website's mail while looking for a totally unrelated mail in her junk folder. "I couldn't believe what I was reading," Spears told the Michigan Lottery. 

Finding gold in the junk folder

The lucky winner shared that she had purchased the Mega Millions ticket from the Michigan Lottery website after she saw a Facebook ad that said the jackpot prize's value was going pretty high. The 55-year-old didn't check her numbers after that and pretty much forgot about it. 

“A few days later, I was looking for a missing email from someone, so I checked the spam folder in my email account," she told the Michigan Lottery officials. That is when she saw the email from the Lottery saying that she had won a prize. Spears couldn't believe her eyes so she logged into the lottery website to confirm the message. She was shocked to see that she had really won $3 million.

Through the ticket that was up for the December 31, 2021, drawing, Spears matched five of the winning numbers and won the $1 million prize. The sum was further multiplied by three by the Megaplier of the lottery. Spears collected her prize and said she would be sharing it with her family and would also retire early. 

She further added that she will now be checking her spam folder more frequently. “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,” she said. 

This year, in another astonishing win, a Texas Mega Millions player bagged an estimated prize of $800 million prize. As per the official release, the player who is yet to be identified, was the first person to match all six numbers that were drawn. As per CBS, the winner is estimated to take home a total of $404.2 million after deduction of taxes.

The lucky winner has 180 days from the draw date to claim the prize. The retailer who sold the ticket is eligible for a $1 million bonus, the Texas Lottery said. The winning ticket was sold at a Murphy USA convenience store and gas station in Sugar Land, Texas, whose owner will also receive $1 million as a bonus. 

Apart from the jackpot winner, four other tickets sold in California, Florida, New York, and Washington, also matched five white balls to win the $1 million second-tier prize, as per the game's website. The last time someone won the jackpot prize was on June 4, when a ticket sold in Illinois bagged $552 million, as per NBC.