Robocalls rang up a new high in 2019. Two or more daily is average in some states

Mike Snider | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption How to stop those annoying robocalls, once and for all Robocalls are still a plague. We tried out apps, phone features and the Do Not Call registry to stop them

The robocalls kept coming in 2019.

Americans were hit with 58.5 billion robocalls last year, an increase of 22% from the 47.8 billion received in 2018, according to YouMail, a company that provides a service to block such messages.

“We’ve now had well over 100 billion robocalls in the past two years,” said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici in a statement accompanying the report. “It’s no wonder that an anti-robocall bill passed Congress overwhelmingly and was signed by the president on Dec. 31, 2019.”

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed into law the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act, which gives the FCC more time to take action against robocallers and fine them for up to $10,000 per call.

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Another potential for relief: Recently-adopted tech standards are meant to help providers identify spam calls and "spoofed" call numbers to prevent them from even going to consumers.

“We expect to see more robocallers stopped due to better and more timely enforcement, as we well as improved technological solutions to block their calls and track them down," Quilici told USA TODAY. "The big question though is whether other robocallers will quickly replace them.”

Scam calls make up most of the robocall deluge, accounting for 25.9 billion or 44% of all robocalls, YouMail finds. Alerts and reminders accounted for 13 billion (22%); financial reminders, 11.4 billion (21%); and telemarketing calls, 8 billion (14%).

Texas and California got the most robocalls in 2019, more than 6 billion. Seven other states (Florida, Georgia, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Illinois) got more than 2 billion robocalls.

In a separate report released last week, Maryland and Nevada were hit hardest by robocalls, getting about 18 calls and 16.5 calls per month, respectively, and filing an above-average number of robocall complaints with the Federal Trade Commission, according to an analysis by cellphone recommendation site Let's Talk, which also factored in YouMail's Robocall Index.

Residents of Washington, D.C., got the most robocalls, averaging nearly two each day (a total of 599 for the year, 1.6 calls daily); Louisiana residents averaged more than one per day, too, getting 371 per person during 2019.

The states with the biggest increases in robocalls were West Virginia (55%) and Idaho (51%).

Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.