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Laura Spears with winner's check
Photo: Michigan Lottery
How often and how thoroughly do you check the e-mails in your mailbox's spam folder?
What is the probability that you will click on a lottery winning notification?
And would you still believe the statements made in it?
Laura Spears came to a fortune in the millions this way.
The woman from Oakland County in the US state of Michigan found a corresponding email in the spam folder of her email account.
There she was told that she had won $3 million in the Michigan Lottery.
The 55-year-old couldn't believe her eyes, but possibly remembered a ticket she bought for the New Year's Eve draw – with the numbers 2, 5, 30, 46, 61.
Lottery classified as safe sender
"I saw an ad on Facebook saying the Mega Millions jackpot is pretty big, so I logged into my account and bought a ticket," Spears said, according to a statement from the lottery company.
"A few days later I was looking for a missing email from someone and checked the spam folder in my email account."
When she came across the email from the lottery certifying her a win, she logged on to the lottery, where the message was confirmed.
She is still shocked that she won so much money.
Spears meanwhile visited the lottery headquarters to collect her winnings.
She wants to share it with her family and retire earlier than planned.
And she made some changes to her email account, too: she added the lottery to her safe senders list.
"Just in case I'm ever lucky enough to get another email about a big win."
It is not known whether the lottery company will also inform its winners in other ways than by e-mail.
In Germany, the case of an unknown player from Baden-Württemberg recently made headlines.
After he had not collected his double-digit million prize for three years, it expired.
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