Experts say robocall blockers helping solve pesky problem

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Are robocalls driving you out of your mind? Last year an estimated 25-billion robocalls were made in the U.S. and the number is increasing.

If you want to start a conversation with a stranger - a passionate conversation, just bring up recorded telephone sales pitches.

I did that with Gary Russ from San Francisco.

RELATED: Here's how to protect yourself from robocall scams

I told him I was putting together a news report on Robo calls and asked, "Do you get a lot of them"?

"Oh, my god," he answered, "I get so many robocalls. So many. 5, 6, 7 a day."

He is right. It is an onslaught.

Alex Quilici heads up Youmail.com, a visual voicemail service that offers call blocking. He told me, "Our estimate from the last quarter is about five-billion a month. That is an astonishing number of them in a month, and about half of them are scams."

Back to Gary's take on that, "It never ends. It never ends."

It feels that way, but it seems to be ending for Goncalo Macieira-Kaufmann of San Francisco.

"I get a lot of robocalls but less lately now that we are talking more about it, maybe getting less of it".

Is he lucky, or on the cutting edge? As bad as things are now, Quilici says things are actually on the verge of getting better.

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"I think they are going to keep coming, but there's a lot of action taking place now that should ultimately start reducing them in the same way we saw email spam eventually get down to a very minor nuisance," Quilici said.

How? Youmail.com and other third parties apps are blocking calls, so are phone carriers and the government is encouraging all of this work.

It will happen. It will just take a while.

Take a look at more stories and videos by Michael Finney and 7 On Your Side.