Do you ever check your spam folder? You might want to after reading this story about how one lucky woman almost missed out on a multi-million dollar lottery prize that waited for her because it got labeled as junk.
Most of the time, the emails that wind up in our spam folders are junk or connected to scams. This is why many people don’t even glance in their spam folder before deleting the hundreds of messages just sitting in there. But Laura Spears of Oakland County, Michigan, recently discovered a legitimate hidden treasure among the countless unread messages in her spam folder.
The 55-year-old had no idea that a lottery ticket she bought online on Dec. 31, 2021, matched all five winning numbers of the Mega Million game. Those five numbers earned Spears $1 million immediately. In addition to the main prize, a multiplier option tripled the prize, bringing the total winnings to $3 million. Talk about a happy start to the new year!
And all of that money would have been left unclaimed if Spears hadn’t been looking for a different email.
“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 told the Michigan Lottery.
“A few days later, I was looking for a missing email from someone, so I checked the spam folder in my email account,” she continued. “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!”
Once Spears found out the prize was legitimate, she traveled to the lottery’s headquarters to claim her big check.
Spears also told the Michigan Lottery she plans to retire earlier than she planned and wants to share her winnings with her family.
Email users need to carefully monitor their accounts to make sure important messages aren’t being redirected to spam. However, always keep a careful eye out for emails, texts, app alerts or calls offering money. Not every promise of money is a legitimate lottery win!
This story originally appeared on Don't Waste Your Money. Checkout Don't Waste Your Money for product reviews and other great ideas to save and make money.
