diff --git a/bin/fail2ban_digest b/bin/fail2ban_digest
index bb6737f..8f41670 100755
--- a/bin/fail2ban_digest
+++ b/bin/fail2ban_digest
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ def db_busy_open(filename, flags, timeout):
 
 def add(db, ip):
 	db = db_busy_open(db_location + '/' + db + '.dbm', 'c', 30)
-	if db_creation_date_key not in db.keys():
+	if db_creation_date_key.encode('UTF-8') not in db.keys():
 		db[db_creation_date_key] = datetime.utcnow().strftime(db_date_format).encode('UTF-8')
 	event_date = ('%s, ' % datetime.utcnow().strftime(db_date_format)).encode('UTF-8')
 	try: