diff --git a/disclaimerfilter.py b/disclaimerfilter.py
index 8fccb7f..26c93ca 100755
--- a/disclaimerfilter.py
+++ b/disclaimerfilter.py
@@ -65,7 +65,19 @@ rules = [
 
 # read input and find recipient
 mail = "".join(sys.stdin.readlines())
-recipient = email.parser.HeaderParser().parsestr(mail)["To"]
+parsedmail = email.parser.HeaderParser().parsestr(mail)
+recipient = parsedmail["To"]
+
+if parsedmail["Content-type"] is not None:
+    for part in parsedmail["Content-type"].lower().split(";"):
+        if part.find("charset") >= 0:
+            encoding = part.split("=")[1].replace("\"", "").replace("'", "")
+            break
+        # default fallback
+        encoding = "utf-8"
+else:
+    # default fallback
+    encoding = "utf-8"
 
 for rule, disclaimer in rules:
     if recipient.find(rule) >= 0:
@@ -76,7 +88,7 @@ for rule, disclaimer in rules:
                                 "--htmltoo",
                                 "--force-for-bad-html",
                                 ],
-                            input=mail.encode(),
+                            input=mail.encode(encoding),
                             capture_output=True
                             )
 
@@ -91,4 +103,4 @@ for rule, disclaimer in rules:
         break
 
 sendmailprocess = subprocess.Popen(["/usr/bin/sendmail", "-G", "-i"] + sys.argv[1:], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
-sendmailprocess.communicate(input=mail.encode('utf-8'))
+sendmailprocess.communicate(input=mail.encode(encoding))