35 States Ask FCC To Allow New Technology To Block Spoofed Robocalls

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(CBS Local) -- If you're sick and tired of robocalls flooding your cell phone, there may be relief on the horizon.

Attorneys general from 34 states (and the Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection) are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to create new rules that would allow telephone service providers to use new technology to detect and block illegal robocalls.

Authorities said consumers got more than 30 billion illegal robocalls in 2017 to unsuspecting consumers and that number is expected to top 40 billion this year.

Tennessee Deputy Attorney General Jeff Hill told WTVF he's seen 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 to fool you into thinking the call is legit.

"These calls come in and they seem to be from somebody you might know so they're more likely to answer them," Hill explained.

Last year, regulators took steps to crack down on these illegal and annoying calls by blocking some of them but scammers found a way around that.

The new technology should be ready next year.

The 35 states calling for calling on the FCC to create new rules to better block illegal robocalls: Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.