A woman from one of the world’s tiniest towns thought she was being scammed when a letter telling her she had won a fortune on the lottery arrived in the post.

The winner- named only as Joanie L.- lives in the town of Cowdrey, Colorado State, USA, which has a population of just 27.

And she was instantly suspicious that the letter might be a trick to con her out of money.

But when lotto chiefs assured her the USD 250,000 (GBP 204,425) was genuine, she then began worrying that her entire town would soon know about the win.

Even though she refused to use her full name and hid her face behind her giant presentation cheque, she complained: “Everyone will know.”

Joanie – a worker at the local courthouse – scooped the prize on Friday, 10th March – claimed the prize at the lottery headquarters in the city of Fort Collins.

Officials told her they had to contact her by post because they did not have a phone number or email address on her online profile.

Colorado Lottery said in a statement obtained by Newsflash: “Joanie has played a variety of Lottery games for many years but her biggest win had previously been USD 500 [GBP 409], so this certainly beat that.”

They added: “She entered her non winning ticket into our bonus draw and won, which people are not aware of until we show up to their door with a big check or contact them by phone, email, or certified mail.

“We do these prize surprises almost monthly and this is one of them!”

Joanie told lottery officials she plans to use part of her win to start a trust fund and spoil her pet alpacas.