Michigan Woman Discovers $3 Million Lotto Prize In Spam Folder

An Oakland County, Michigan woman hit the jackpot — literally — when she checked her spam folder.

Lauren Spears, 55, bought a Mega Millions ticket through the Michigan Lottery website when she saw the jackpot was getting big. 

When the numbers were drawn on December 31, 2021, she had matched the five numbers to win the $1 million prize. In addition, she had the Megaplier, which increased the jackpot to $3 million. 

At first, she had no idea she had even won.

“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. “A few days later, I was looking for a missing email from someone, so I checked the spam folder in my email account.”  

Sure enough, there was the email from the Lottery informing her that she had won. 

“That’s when 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. It’s all still so shocking to me that I really won $3 million!”

Lauren Spears has since claimed her prize at Lottery headquarters. She told the Michigan Lottery that she intends to retire early and split her winnings with her family. 

“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 joked.