diff --git a/mailnews/local/src/nsPop3Service.cpp b/mailnews/local/src/nsPop3Service.cpp
index 4a69a83c2fc..ded714748a2 100644
--- a/mailnews/local/src/nsPop3Service.cpp
+++ b/mailnews/local/src/nsPop3Service.cpp
@@ -374,14 +374,14 @@ NS_IMETHODIMP nsPop3Service::NewChannel(nsIURI *aURI, nsIChannel **_retval)
     nsCOMPtr<nsIMsgMailNewsUrl> url = do_QueryInterface(aURI, &rv);
     if (NS_SUCCEEDED(rv) && url)
     {
-      // GetUsername() returns an escaped username, and the protocol
-      // stores the username unescaped, so we must unescape the username.
-      // XXX this is of course very risky since the unescaped string may
-      // contain embedded nulls as well as characters from some unknown
-      // charset!!
-      url->GetUsername(username);
-      NS_UnescapeURL(username);
-      protocol->SetUsername(username.get());
+      nsXPIDLCString realUserName;
+      nsCOMPtr <nsIMsgIncomingServer> server;
+      url->GetServer(getter_AddRefs(server));
+      if (server)
+      {
+        server->GetRealUsername(getter_Copies(realUserName));
+        protocol->SetUsername(realUserName.get());
+      }
     }
     rv = protocol->QueryInterface(NS_GET_IID(nsIChannel), (void **) _retval);
   }