Trouble with php and flash

I am trying to get php to send data to flash, but it’s acting a bit strange.

I have flash send php data, make php check that data against a database, and then send back to flash if that data was found or not. I have all of it working except sending the data back to flash.

my php script will do this to pass the varaiable like this:

echo "st4tus=failed";

then in flash, it saves it to the variable 1st4tus instead of st4tus. why is this?