URLVariables - Passing an Email Address

Hello,
I am having trouble creating an email form in Flash. The PHP is working fine and the email sends if I query the php in a browser but when I pass the variables from Flash the email address that is passed gets ****ed up.

For example:
the text I enter in the text field: bobloblaw@football.com
what is sent to php: bobloblaw%40football%2Ecom

I realise this is probably to do with urlencoding and I have tried escape() on the strings but this ddint seem to help. Am I missing something or is there another way to do this.

Help greatly appreciated.