Hi Julie... For as long as I've been on this list, many messages come through to me with the weird characters. I inquired a while back, and was told it had something to do with being an AOL user. I can't explain it, but several other AOL users wrote to me saying they, too, would get the weird characters. I find it very annoying as it really breaks up the intent of a message, and sometimes is so convoluted that the message is incomprehensible! But no-one offered me any suggestions to compensate for or correct the occurrences, so I still get them. Sorry I couldn't help you, but thought I'd pass on what I was told! Jeanne