Data from form fields become html formatted

I’m having a problem where my form fields in flash are returning their data in html code instead of whatever’s typed in. What I mean is, for example when I trace or otherwise use the variable of an empty input field, I get:

<p align=“left”></p>

And if I type, say, “data” into this field and trace its contents, it turns into this:

<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=“2”><P ALIGN=“LEFT”><FONT FACE="_sans" SIZE=“12” COLOR="#333333" LETTERSPACING=“0” KERNING=“0”>data</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>

This isn’t really working when it’s passed to a php script, needless to say.

I’ve never had this problem in older versions of Flash (I’m using a friend’s computer and his is CS3 using ActionScript 2) but I’m not altogether experienced with form making in Flash regardless. I have no idea how to stop this and I would greatly appreciate help. It’s probably a really simple fix I imagine.