diff --git a/kmreaderwin.cpp b/kmreaderwin.cpp
index 7c0b16b98..d73aff1b1 100644
--- a/kmreaderwin.cpp
+++ b/kmreaderwin.cpp
@@ -534,12 +534,15 @@ const QString KMReaderWin::strToHtml(const QString aStr, bool aDecodeQP,
     }
     else if (ch=='@')
     {
+      char *startofstring = qpstr.data();
       char *startpos = pos;
-      for (i=0; *pos && (isalnum(*pos) || *pos=='@' || *pos=='.' ||
-			 *pos=='_'||*pos=='-' || *pos=='*' || *pos=='[' || *pos==']') 
+      for (i=0; pos >= startofstring && *pos 
+	     && (isalnum(*pos) 
+		 || *pos=='@' || *pos=='.' || *pos=='_'||*pos=='-' 
+		 || *pos=='*' || *pos=='[' || *pos==']') 
 	     && i<255; i++, pos--)
-      {
-      }
+	{
+	}
       i1 = i;
       pos++; 
       for (i=0; *pos && (isalnum(*pos)||*pos=='@'||*pos=='.'||