Wigan man thought he’d scooped £11m – but was told he’d get nothing

Mark Fletcher checked the numbers on the Lotto app for the draw on Saturday, June 29, which appeared to show he'd matched all six numbers and stood to win a life-changing amount of cash.

This appeared to be confirmed on the app itself, which indicated a “winning match” between the numbers drawn and Mark’s numbers highlighted in red.

The 49-year-old contacted the Lotto – only to be told he'd misread the information and his winnings came to zero. What he was looking at was the results checker and not the actual ticket he’d purchased.

Mr Fletcher, a dad-of-one from Ashton, said the uncertainty had left him with “extremely high anxiety”.

He added: "I was a bit shocked when I checked the numbers and found they matched.

"However when I rang them up to check I was on the phone for 45 minutes and the woman was adamant I wasn’t a winner. Then I asked why it was telling me I’d won and if there was a fault with the app, and they denied that also.

"I felt as if I was being put under a lie-detector. She kept saying, ‘you haven’t bought that ticket, have you Mark?’

"When people play the Lotto, they think it's a trustworthy service but I'm doubting that now. They've not shown any empathy towards me.

"It has impacted me – I'm left thinking about all the 'what ifs.' If they've told me I've won but in actual fact I've won nothing, it's a bit cruel and I've had sleepless nights.”

A spokesperson for Lotto operators Allwyn said: "Players can select any set of ‘my numbers’, save these in their app account and then go into the app and check them against any previous draw.

"It has nothing to do with whether a player actually played the numbers or not – and, in this case, the player did not play this set of six numbers via his online account for the draw on June 29, or indeed in any draws prior to the draw on June 29 taking place."