diff --git a/base_layer/wallet/src/util/emoji.rs b/base_layer/wallet/src/util/emoji.rs
index 23ffc5f0b64..40ebf79e74f 100644
--- a/base_layer/wallet/src/util/emoji.rs
+++ b/base_layer/wallet/src/util/emoji.rs
@@ -105,6 +105,9 @@ impl EmojiId {
 
     pub fn str_to_pubkey(s: &str) -> Result<PublicKey, ()> {
         let mut indices = Vec::with_capacity(33);
+        if s.is_empty() {
+            return Err(());
+        }
         for c in s.chars() {
             if let Some(i) = REVERSE_EMOJI.get(&c) {
                 indices.push(*i);
@@ -116,7 +119,7 @@ impl EmojiId {
             return Err(());
         }
         let bytes = EmojiId::byte_vec(s)?;
-        PublicKey::from_bytes(&bytes).map_err(|_| ())
+        return PublicKey::from_bytes(&bytes).map_err(|_| ());
     }
 
     /// Return the 33 character emoji string for this emoji ID
@@ -188,6 +191,7 @@ mod test {
         let eid = EmojiId::from_hex("70350e09c474809209824c6e6888707b7dd09959aa227343b5106382b856f73a").unwrap();
         // Valid emojiID
         assert!(EmojiId::is_valid(eid.as_str()));
+        assert_eq!(EmojiId::is_valid(""), false, "Emoji ID too short");
         assert_eq!(EmojiId::is_valid("😂"), false, "Emoji ID too short");
         assert_eq!(
             EmojiId::is_valid("🤩⚽🐍🍎🍫🤩🍓💔🐘🦄🍞🐇🌲🍇🎶🏠🧣🚢😈🐸👊🕙🤤💎🍓⛅👔🆗🏄👐"),