Updated October 18, 2018

Last year alone, authorities said consumers got more than 30 billion illegal robocalls and that number is expected to top 40 billion this year.

But now the attorneys general from 35 states are calling on the FCC to "target and eliminate unlawful robocalls." Last year, these same regulators took steps to crack down on these illegal and annoying calls by blocking some of them. But it wasn't enough. The scammers found a way around that.

There has been a big increase in what's known as neighbor spoofing where the robocaller's area code and first three numbers appear to be the same as yours.

Calls come in and they seem to be from somebody you might know so they're more likely to answer them.

The FCC is now being asked to create new rules that would allow phone companies to use new technology to detect and block these illegally spoofed or neighbor calls.

The state of Tennessee gets some ten thousand complaints a month about robocalls. The new call detection and blocking technology should be ready to launch by next year