5
The one who won and told everybody
Publicity is not a legal requirement everywhere, and where it is optional it is usually a mistake.
Winners who held the oversized cheque up on television have gone on to describe a consistent experience: requests from strangers, approaches from businesses, and in several documented cases, harassment and threats.
The starkest example is Abraham Shakespeare, who won $30 million in Florida in 2006, was befriended by a woman who took control of his finances, and was murdered by her in 2009. She was convicted of first-degree murder.
That is an extreme outcome and not a typical one. But it sits at the end of a spectrum whose other end — endless requests, ruined friendships, a name that follows you — is entirely typical.