Oakland lottery winner almost loses $3 million jackpot prize in spam folder

Laura Spears at Michigan Lottery headquarters with her Mega Millions prize of $3 million which she almost lost in her spam folder. PHOTO Michigan Lottery

When Oakland County woman Laura Spears checked her email spam folder, she got the surprise of her life.

Laura, 55, spotted an email there which told her that she’d won a $3 million Mega Millions jackpot prize in the Michigan Lottery.

It all started after she saw a Facebook ad saying that the Mega Millions jackpot was increasing.

“So I got on my account and bought a ticket,” Laura said.

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

That’s when she saw the email from the Michigan Lottery saying she had won a $3 million prize.

Laura Spears got all the five white balls; 02-05-30-46-61 in the Dec. 31, 2021 drawing. PHOTO: USA Mega

Laura matched the five white balls – 02-05-30-46-61 – in the Dec. 31, 2021 drawing to win a $1 million prize. With her Megaplier purchase, the prize was multiplied to $3 million.

She had bought her winning ticket online at MichiganLottery.com.

“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!”

The Michigan Lottery headquarters in Lansing. PHOTO: Google Maps

With her winnings, she plans to share with her family and retire earlier than she had planned.

“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.