diff --git a/apps/sam/java/src/net/i2p/sam/SAMHandler.java b/apps/sam/java/src/net/i2p/sam/SAMHandler.java
index e2bcb84fb709d4ad2d3005fa0a9c57c02f5d3df9..80ee1b568a3a7e35a8c5f3f706210798425abc77 100644
--- a/apps/sam/java/src/net/i2p/sam/SAMHandler.java
+++ b/apps/sam/java/src/net/i2p/sam/SAMHandler.java
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ abstract class SAMHandler implements Runnable, Handler {
     public static boolean writeString(String str, SocketChannel out)
     {
     	try {
-            writeBytes(ByteBuffer.wrap(DataHelper.getASCII(str)), out);
+            writeBytes(ByteBuffer.wrap(DataHelper.getUTF8(str)), out);
         } catch (IOException e) {
             //_log.debug("Caught IOException", e);
             return false;