diff --git a/lib/core/settings.py b/lib/core/settings.py
index 4c691841b..250bedf8e 100644
--- a/lib/core/settings.py
+++ b/lib/core/settings.py
@@ -57,6 +57,9 @@ PAYLOAD_DELIMITER = "__PAYLOAD_DELIMITER__"
 CHAR_INFERENCE_MARK = "%c"
 PRINTABLE_CHAR_REGEX = r"[^\x00-\x1f\x7f-\xff]"
 
+# Regular expression used for recognition of textual content-type
+TEXT_CONTENT_TYPE_REGEX = r"(?i)(text|form|message|xml|javascript|ecmascript|json)"
+
 # Regular expression used for recognition of generic permission messages
 PERMISSION_DENIED_REGEX = r"(command|permission|access)\s*(was|is)?\s*denied"
 
diff --git a/lib/request/connect.py b/lib/request/connect.py
index 19e62fdcb..2bc90c777 100644
--- a/lib/request/connect.py
+++ b/lib/request/connect.py
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ from lib.core.settings import PAYLOAD_DELIMITER
 from lib.core.settings import PERMISSION_DENIED_REGEX
 from lib.core.settings import PLAIN_TEXT_CONTENT_TYPE
 from lib.core.settings import REPLACEMENT_MARKER
+from lib.core.settings import TEXT_CONTENT_TYPE_REGEX
 from lib.core.settings import UNENCODED_ORIGINAL_VALUE
 from lib.core.settings import URI_HTTP_HEADER
 from lib.core.settings import WARN_TIME_STDEV
@@ -568,11 +569,11 @@ class Connect(object):
                 raise SqlmapConnectionException(warnMsg)
 
         finally:
-            if HTTP_HEADER.CONTENT_TYPE in (responseHeaders or {}) and not re.search(r"(?i)(text|form|message|xml|javascript|ecmascript|json)", responseHeaders[HTTP_HEADER.CONTENT_TYPE]):
-                page = unicode(page, errors="replace")
-            else:
-                page = page if isinstance(page, unicode) else getUnicode(page)
-            page = page if isinstance(page, unicode) else getUnicode(page)
+            if not isinstance(page, unicode):
+                if HTTP_HEADER.CONTENT_TYPE in (responseHeaders or {}) and not re.search(TEXT_CONTENT_TYPE_REGEX, responseHeaders[HTTP_HEADER.CONTENT_TYPE]):
+                    page = unicode(page, errors="ignore")
+                else:
+                    page = getUnicode(page)
             socket.setdefaulttimeout(conf.timeout)
 
         processResponse(page, responseHeaders)