diff --git a/fhem/FHEM/75_MSG.pm b/fhem/FHEM/75_MSG.pm
index a8f58c93e..b3a0e1e7a 100755
--- a/fhem/FHEM/75_MSG.pm
+++ b/fhem/FHEM/75_MSG.pm
@@ -134,6 +134,18 @@ s/^[\s\t]*([a-z,]*!?(screen|light|audio|text|push|mail)[a-z,!|]*)[\s\t]+//
         $types = $1;
     }
 
+    # programatic exception:
+    # e.g. recipients were given automatically from empty readings
+    if ( $msg =~ s/^[\s\t]*([!]?(([A-Za-z0-9%+._-])*@([,\-:|]+)))[\s\t]+// ) {
+        Log3 $globalDevName, 4,
+            "msg: recipient '$1' contains special characters like"
+          . " ',-:|' so message won't be sent. This might be okay, e.g. if you are"
+          . " using something like a reading from RESIDENTS/ROOMMATE/GUEST to"
+          . " address present or absent residents and this list is simply empty"
+          . " at this time. ($msg)";
+        return;
+    }
+
     # check for given recipients
     if ( $msg =~
 s/^[\s\t]*([!]?(([A-Za-z0-9%+._-])*@([%+a-z0-9A-Z.-]+))[\w,@.!|:]*)[\s\t]+//