Last year, American’s received 26.3 billion robocalls, a number which the Washington Post reported is a 46% increase from 2017. There’s no end in sight for spam phone calls, according to a report from First Orion, a call ID and blocking service. This year, every other phone call made in America is most likely a robocall.

Not every robocall is spam, as some automated messages alert people of prescription renewals, flight delays and other important information. Most likely, however, most of these calls are spam phone calls. With the drastic, yearly increase in these phone calls, something must change.

The organization which has the authority to take steps towards ending the bombardment of robocalls each year is the Federal Communications Commission. According to the FCC, 60% of all complaints they receive involve unwanted phone calls. With so many complaints, the FCC is indubitably aware of the problems caused by these spam phone calls.

There are punishments set in place by the FCC surrounding automated phone calls, but they aren’t always effective. If you tell a company they can no longer call you, by law, they must stop. Companies are able to work around this by hiding agreements in lengthy user agreements, which are not often read. In these agreements, users may sign full consent to automated phone calls or agree to contracts that are difficult to cancel.

Tom Wheeler, the previous chairman of the FCC, made strides a few years back to stop robocalls. With his imposed changes, Wheeler wanted to require companies to get consent from consumers before calling them. Additionally, if an individual declined phone calls from an organization, then the company would be unable to call them in the future.

This change theoretically would cut down on the billions of robocalls Americans receive on a monthly basis; however, this change was never implemented by the FCC due to a trade group suit. After failing to make changes a few years back, it’s time the FCC re-evaluates the problem that’s impacted most Americans.

Under Ajit Pai, the current chairman of the FCC, strong regulations have not been made to cut back on robocalls in America. Earlier this year, Ajit Pai urged phone carriers to implement free caller identification technology by the end of 2019 to help consumers avoid robocalls, but this is hardly a solution.

Scam phone callers are able to ‘spoof’ phone numbers to trick individuals into answering the phone. They can achieve this by using phone numbers which appear to be local numbers, even if the call is placed from across the world. By spoofing phone calls, scammers are able to bypass the protection of caller identification. When a spoofed phone call is sent, it may appear as a local call for call identification technology.

Instead, the FCC needs harsher penalties against robocallers. This can be achieved in a variety of ways. With robocalls expected to continue increasing this year, the FCC cannot wait any longer to implement an effective policy to protect users.