If you think your phone rang more often this year, you're probably right.
Robocalls to Minnesotans doubled in 2018, to an average of eight machine-made calls a month.
"It's irritating as hell," said Lakeville resident Leonard Sims, pausing after lunch in the Minneapolis skyway. "I just got two while I was standing here."
Federal and state regulators are trying to rein in the deluge of calls, which totaled more than 5.1 billion nationwide this year, according to YouMail, a California company that offers a robocall-blocking app for cellphones.
But they're no match for fast-moving advances in technology, which have made robocalls easier and cheaper to make than ever. Some robocall operations have been single-handedly responsible for as many as a billion calls a year.
"They're incredibly frustrating, obviously," said Ben Wogslund, a spokesman for Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson. "The technology has gotten so much better.
"One of the problems is, most of these robocalls are coming from criminal enterprises."
Robocallers often bypass the federal "do not call" registry and can easily disguise their own phone number, a practice called "spoofing." By using a false number that displays from the same area code as the recipient — or even appears to be the number of a friend or family member — robocallers can induce a reluctant recipient to pick up their calls.