Oblivious winner dodged lottery's phone calls for days

March 1 (UPI) -- An Australian woman found out she had won a lottery jackpot of more than $70,000 after multiple days of dodging phone calls that she assumed were scammers.

The Frenchs Forest, New South Wales, woman told The Lott officials she bought a ticket for the Feb. 25 Lucky Lotteries drawing at thelott.com, but forgot to check her account after the drawing.

Lottery officials tried contacting the winner by phone, but the woman ignored the calls for several days, assuming they were scam-related.

"I received some phone calls and emails straight after the draw, but I didn't recognize the phone number or email, so I didn't answer or take any notice! I said to myself, 'It's definitely a scam,'" the woman recalled.

"I ignored the phone calls and emails for a few days, and then, eventually, I decided to log in to my online The Lott account. It all started to make sense when I discovered I'd won."

The woman won a jackpot of $72,580.50. The winner said she still is thinking about how to use her prize money.

"I'll have to take everything in first and wait for the prize to land into the bank account before I can decide what I'll spend it on, but I know it will go to good use," she said.

"I've been playing for about 10 years now, so I'm just so excited to have won a major lottery prize!"