diff --git a/git-send-email.perl b/git-send-email.perl
index 8200d58cdc..62c8f91d26 100755
--- a/git-send-email.perl
+++ b/git-send-email.perl
@@ -1699,7 +1699,7 @@ sub process_file {
 	# Now parse the message body
 	while(<$fh>) {
 		$message .=  $_;
-		if (/^([a-z-]*-by|Cc): (.*)/i) {
+		if (/^([a-z][a-z-]*-by|Cc): (.*)/i) {
 			chomp;
 			my ($what, $c) = ($1, $2);
 			# strip garbage for the address we'll use: