diff --git a/osc/commandline.py b/osc/commandline.py
index e0f2aa92..4e160307 100755
--- a/osc/commandline.py
+++ b/osc/commandline.py
@@ -299,7 +299,9 @@ def main():
 
 
     elif cmd == 'id':
-        print ''.join(get_user_id(sys.argv[2]))
+        r = get_user_id(sys.argv[2])
+        if r:
+            print ''.join(r)
 
 
     elif cmd == 'platforms':
diff --git a/osc/core.py b/osc/core.py
index df4230cf..b92305be 100755
--- a/osc/core.py
+++ b/osc/core.py
@@ -682,9 +682,13 @@ def read_meta_from_spec(specfile):
 
 
 def get_user_id(user):
-    u = makeurl(['person', user])
-    f = urllib2.urlopen(u)
-    return f.readlines()
+    u = makeurl(['person', user.replace(' ', '+')])
+    try:
+        f = urllib2.urlopen(u)
+        return ''.join(f.readlines())
+    except urllib2.HTTPError:
+        print 'user \'%s\' not found' % user
+        return None
 
 
 def get_source_file(prj, package, filename, targetfilename=None):