Fifty-five-year-old Laura Spears from Oakland County in Michigan purchased a Mega Millions ticket on the Michigan Lottery website for a draw on December 31, 2021, according to the report.

"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 was quoted in the report as saying.

After a few days, she checked the spam folder of her e-mail account while she was working. To her surprise, there was an e-mail from the lottery stating that she had won the prize.

Spears couldn't believe the message but logged in to her lottery account to authenticate it. As per the details, she matched five numbers to win $1 million and managed to multiply her prize by three because she had paid for a "Megaplier".

"It's all still so shocking to me that I really won $3m," the woman said, adding she planned to share the money with her family and retire early.

Last week, Spears claimed her winnings at the lottery headquarters, saying she would make sure to check her spam folder "more often".

Expecting more unexpected prizes from the lottery, Spears said she would definitely add the Michigan Lottery to her safe senders list just in case she ever got lucky enough to receive another email about a huge prize.

People took to Twitter to ask whether anyone could buy online lottery ticket from the Michigan lottery.

Some others shared lottery numbers with a hyperlink to check them.

However, the lottery company received criticism as well for using an unsafe way to communicate the winner.