In a bid to undo the damage of its latest scratch card competition, which was recently exposed as a scam, burger behemoth McDonald’s has turned a former homeless American man into a millionaire.


McDonald’s says it selected 35-year-old drifter Patrick Collier at random as one of five US consumers to receive a US$1m cheque. Another 50 customers were handed US$100,000.


Collier, who is currently living in a cheap Florida motel, commented: “I thought I had done something wrong, but I was confused when they handed me this certificate telling me I had won a million dollars.”