New York Sen. Charles Schumer is introducing legislation to try to curb an increasing number of unwanted telemarketing calls.

The New York Democrat held a news conference Sunday to announce his strategy against the so-called robocalls.

He says spammers are taking advantage of new technology, legal loopholes and weak penalties to violate federal “do not call” rules.

The senator wants penalties to be increased to a $20,000 fine for each violation and jail time for the most egregious repeat offenders.

Schumer also is asking the Federal Trade Commission to publicize the best technological solutions to fight the automatic calls.

As of August, the senator says the FTC logged as many as 200,000 robocall complaints a month compared to 65,000 in October 2010.

(AP)