diff --git a/php/PaypalIPN.php b/php/PaypalIPN.php
index 443e802..3091d45 100644
--- a/php/PaypalIPN.php
+++ b/php/PaypalIPN.php
@@ -63,12 +63,15 @@ public function getPaypalUri()
      * Verification Function
      * Sends the incoming post data back to PayPal using the cURL library.
      *
-     * @return bool
+     * @return array|bool
      * @throws Exception
      */
     public function verifyIPN()
     {
-        if ( ! count($_POST)) {
+        if (version_compare(phpversion(), '5.3.0', '<')) {
+            throw new Exception("Requires PHP version 5.3.0 or greater");
+        }
+        if ( ! count($_POST) ) {
             throw new Exception("Missing POST Data");
         }
 
@@ -78,28 +81,28 @@ public function verifyIPN()
         foreach ($raw_post_array as $keyval) {
             $keyval = explode('=', $keyval);
             if (count($keyval) == 2) {
-                // Since we do not want the plus in the datetime string to be encoded to a space, we manually encode it.
-                if ($keyval[0] === 'payment_date') {
-                    if (substr_count($keyval[1], '+') === 1) {
-                        $keyval[1] = str_replace('+', '%2B', $keyval[1]);
-                    }
+                // Since we do not want the plus signs in the date and email strings to be encoded to a space, we use rawurldecode instead of urldecode
+                if (
+                    // single plus sign found in date
+                    ($keyval[0] === 'payment_date' && substr_count($keyval[1], '+') === 1)
+                    // space found that was not encoded using a plus sign
+                    || strpos(rawurldecode($keyval[1]), ' ') !== false
+                    // un-encoded email address found when receiving data from the simulator
+                    || ($_POST["test_ipn"] == 1 && filter_var($keyval[1], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL))
+                ) {
+                    // Keep plus signs
+                    $myPost[$keyval[0]] = rawurldecode($keyval[1]);
+                } else {
+                    // Convert plus signs to spaces
+                    $myPost[$keyval[0]] = urldecode($keyval[1]);
                 }
-                $myPost[$keyval[0]] = urldecode($keyval[1]);
             }
         }
 
         // Build the body of the verification post request, adding the _notify-validate command.
         $req = 'cmd=_notify-validate';
-        $get_magic_quotes_exists = false;
-        if (function_exists('get_magic_quotes_gpc')) {
-            $get_magic_quotes_exists = true;
-        }
         foreach ($myPost as $key => $value) {
-            if ($get_magic_quotes_exists == true && get_magic_quotes_gpc() == 1) {
-                $value = urlencode(stripslashes($value));
-            } else {
-                $value = urlencode($value);
-            }
+            $value = rawurlencode($value);
             $req .= "&$key=$value";
         }
 
@@ -121,7 +124,7 @@ public function verifyIPN()
         curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 30);
         curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Connection: Close'));
         $res = curl_exec($ch);
-        if ( ! ($res)) {
+        if ( ! ($res) ) {
             $errno = curl_errno($ch);
             $errstr = curl_error($ch);
             curl_close($ch);
@@ -136,11 +139,10 @@ public function verifyIPN()
 
         curl_close($ch);
 
-        // Check if PayPal verifies the IPN data, and if so, return true.
+        // Check if PayPal verifies the IPN data, and if so, return data array.
         if ($res == self::VALID) {
-            return true;
-        } else {
-            return false;
+            return $myPost;
         }
+        return null;
     }
 }