A woman was moments away from missing out on a Lotto jackpot worth nearly €3,000,000 - because she thought that the prize was in a spam email message.
Laura Spears correctly matched the five balls – 02-05-30-46-61 - during the New Year's Eve draw in the Michigan Lottery in the US.
That earned her $1,000,000 - but a special Megaplier rule trebled that prize win, making it a life-changing amount.
Ms Spears explained: "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.
"A few days later, I was looking for a missing email from someone, so I checked the spam folder in my email account.
"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 $3m." she told Michigan Lottery Connect.
She claimed her winnings at the lottery headquarters last week, saying she plans to share the money with her family and retire early.
Ms Spears said she would make sure to check her spam folder more often.
"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.
