A new smartphone app made by a South Amboy-based technology company is able to block unwanted calls made by telemarketers.

Tech company TelTech won a contest in combatting these so-called robocalls with an app named RoboKiller.

“Unfortunately the robocall problem is not getting easier. It’s getting harder. There are more and more robocalls being placed,” says RoboKiller product owner Dan Pannasch. “Thankfully that means more customers for us, but it also means a harder problem to solve."

The app blocks the calls from ever reaching the customer’s phone. But it also answers them with a robot of their own.

“It actually answers those calls with answerbots, which…talk back to scammers and waste their time,” says TelTech vice president Ethan Garr.

The makers of RoboKiller say that they expect to see a huge increase in the use of their app over the next three years and they say that they anticipate 10 million users.

“A big part of it for us is just learning what they’re doing based on all of the call data we have. The fact we can actually learn and find out different patterns that they are doing in placing calls, that’s a huge difference maker for us in being able to block them effectively,” Pannasch says.

Rep. Frank Pallone met with the company Tuesday as he touted his Stopping Bad Robocalls Act legislation.

The app is available for iPhone users for $2.99 per month. It will soon be available on Android platforms.