Laura Spears, 55, from Michigan, had acquired a Mega Millions ticket online from the state lotto after she saw the prize climbing into the hundreds of millions.

“A few days later, I was looking for a missing email from somebody, so I inspected the spam folder in my e-mail account,” she informed lotto authorities.

“That’s when I saw an e-mail from the lottery game saying I had won a reward.”

“I couldn’t think what I was reading, so I visited to my lottery account to confirm the message in the email,” she stated, calling the win “shocking”.

Spears says she now prepares to retire early, and to monitor her emails more closely in the future.

“I definitely included the Michigan Lottery to my safe senders list simply in case I ever get fortunate adequate to get another email about a big prize,” she said.

Back in 2018, a winner of a lotto in South Carolina walked away with a record $1.6 bn Mega Millions win.