Hawaii is seeing a spike in spam, not the kind we love in Hawaii, the un-wanted kind. Junk e-mails causing a traffic jam on the cyber highway.

“Very annoying!”

That's how Adecco Regional Vice President Beverly Marica sums up the countless junk emails, or spam she gets everyday.

“It's saying you could get all these things cheaper. You've just won this. All you have to do is go to this website and claim it.,” says Adecco Regional Vice President Beverly Marica.

She says the past week, it's the worst she's ever seen it. In the short time we were with her, she received 5 new junk messages.

“You get so much of this email, it clogs up your system and makes it slower.,” said Marica.

Businesses and personal computer users nationwide have reported delays in email transmissions since Thanksgiving. From minutes to hours. In some cases, mailboxes were clogged completely.

“It's full of spam so the emails they really want to get are being kicked back because their mailbox is full. It's a real problem,” adds Marica.


Ho'ala Greevy manages PauSpam, a local company that filters junk emails. He says, “It's a never ending battle. Back and forth non stop.”

The company tracks spam, and noticed a big spike in activity around Thanksgiving.

Greevy said, “It's definitely the Christmas Rush. Spammers they make money, sell things. They're looking to cash in on the Christmas rush.”

“At the beginning of the year, we were seeing about 80 percent of all emails were spam. Now, we're seeing 90 as high as 96 percent on the weekends.”

Here are some tips to prevent spam from turning into a scam, use spam a filter.
-That'll help cut down on junk mail, although spammers catch on quickly.
-Don't open any emails from unknown senders.
-And, never provide personal information solicited in emails.