It is encoded because the sender or the sender's email system encoded it. There are various reasons why that would be done. Some are user options, but most are automatic. Anything which has binary (non-ASCII) codes are automatically encoded. Any non-ASCII language or character set specification are automatically encoded, even if indicated as "plain text" Some email systems might have all attachments to Internet mail encoded, which would force even ASCII text attachments to be encoded. The sender might have specified messages sent to that particular address to be handled in a particular manner, which might require encoding. The user might have specified an automatic signature specification which might have binary codes requiring encoding. I believe an MS Outlook "Vcard" signature file has binary codes. Don -----Original Message----- From: Cesar Sosa [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, April 16, 2004 8:40 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Scramble Message I am new to this and consequenly need some clarification. Can you explain why the message appear encoded and not the rest of the body? Cesar Sosa Internet Technologies 485-9704