OAKLAND COUNTY, Michigan: A 55-year-old Michigan woman who checked her email spam folder for a missing message, discovered she had won a $3 million lottery jackpot.

Laura Spears of Oakland County told Michigan Lottery officials she bought a ticket on MichiganLottery.com for the 31st December Mega Millions draw.

"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," she said, according to lottery officials.

"That was when I saw an email from the lottery saying I had won a prize. I could not believe what I was reading, so I logged in to my Lottery account to confirm the message in the email. It is all still so shocking to me that I really won $3 million," she added.

The prize money will allow her to plan an early retirement, Spears said, noting she has taken measures to prevent the same situation from occurring in the future.

"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.