Winning a huge life-changing lottery prize is not an easy task. Imagine doing so and then not claiming your winnings. It happens a lot unfortunately and this month, nearly cost a player in Michigan, USA, her $3m Mega Millions win.
Do you keep a constant eye on your spam folder? Often, it’s full of offers of help with a certain part of your body and emails that if replied too could see you become a victim of fraud. However, for Laura Spears, making that check led to a fantastic discovery.
The last day of 2021 saw a Mega Millions draw held that had a $221m jackpot. Having seen an ad about the draw on Facebook, the 55-year-old went online and purchased a ticket for the draw hoping to win a big prize.
Mega Millions Draw Result
Now considering she was keen to do that, you’d think that Laura would have checked the result of the Mega Millions draw. That’s not the case and the fact is it wasn’t until a few days into 2022 that she finally found out her millionaire status.
The Michigan resident hadn’t set out to discover if her Mega Millions ticket had won anything. Her task at that time was to search for an email from a friend that wasn’t in her inbox. Then came the moment when Laura found an email from the Michigan Lottery telling her she’d won a prize.
Swiftly going online to check her account, finally she found out the truth. Her ticket had matched the five main balls in the December 31 Mega Millions draw. That would normally win $1m but this player had made a very clever decision when purchasing her ticket online.
Laura decided to splash out and spend an extra dollar to make her ticket valid for the Megaplier. That multiplies your win by a certain figure (unless it’s the jackpot) and on this occasion, it was 3x. That means she hadn’t won $1m but $3m. If her ticket had matched the Mega Ball, she’d have landed the $221m jackpot.
Perhaps a jackpot win will come along in the future. Starting 2022 as a millionaire (even though it took a few days to find out) isn’t a bad way to start the new year. “Its all so shocking to me that I really won $3m,” said the lucky player.
Early Retirement for Mega Millions Winner
Her Mega Millions win will allow her to retire earlier. Other uses for her win will be to help her family. Since the win one task has been carried out that will help her in the future. Laura has added the Michigan Lottery to her safe senders list. No more ending up in the spam folder now.
The Mega Millions winner said: “Other online players might aim to do the same in case they find themselves in a similar situation.” In Australia, players can register their lottery tickets. That allows the lottery company to know who has won a major prize, so they just call them up.
That can be a problem too though. A recent winner of $25m left her phone on silent and didn’t initially check the missed calls telling her she was a multi-millionaire.
It’s best therefore if you do buy a lottery ticket to check the results. No need then to check emails that may end up in the spam folder or miss important calls. For some draws, don’t just check the numbers, there are often millionaire codes too. One Millionaire Maker winner from Liverpool is yet to claim their winnings. The deadline to claim is March 6, so it could be lost
