diff --git a/html/inc/boinc_db.inc b/html/inc/boinc_db.inc
index e46a8617cd..d3cd4dd5eb 100644
--- a/html/inc/boinc_db.inc
+++ b/html/inc/boinc_db.inc
@@ -193,16 +193,12 @@ class BoincUser {
         $email_addr = BoincDb::escape_string($email_addr);
         return self::lookup("email_addr='$email_addr'");
     }
+    // name is not necessarily unique
+    //
     static function lookup_name($name) {
         $name = BoincDb::escape_string($name);
         $users = BoincUser::enum("name='$name'");
-        switch (sizeof($users)) {
-        case 1:
-            return $users[0];
-        case 0:
-            return null;
-        }
-        return -1;
+        return $users;
     }
     static function count($clause) {
         $db = BoincDb::get();
diff --git a/html/user/pm.php b/html/user/pm.php
index 46fae424d3..3e668ed38f 100644
--- a/html/user/pm.php
+++ b/html/user/pm.php
@@ -210,12 +210,13 @@ function do_send($logged_in_user) {
                     pm_form($replyto, $userid, tra("Could not find user with id %1", $userid));
                 }
             } else {
-                $user = BoincUser::lookup_name($username);
-                if ($user == null) {
+                $users = BoincUser::lookup_name($username);
+                if (count($users) == 0) {
                     pm_form($replyto, $userid, tra("Could not find user with username %1", $username));
-                } elseif ($user == -1) { // Non-unique username
+                } elseif (count($users) > 1) { // Non-unique username
                     pm_form($replyto, $userid, tra("%1 is not a unique username; you will have to use user ID", $username));
                 }
+                $user = $users[0];
             }
             BoincForumPrefs::lookup($user);
             if (is_ignoring($user, $logged_in_user)) {