diff --git a/code/chat.js b/code/chat.js
index 6df67f1d..e5b69e26 100644
--- a/code/chat.js
+++ b/code/chat.js
@@ -250,10 +250,12 @@ window.chat.writeDataToHash = function(newData, storageHash, skipSecureMsgs) {
     // avoid duplicates
     if(json[0] in storageHash) return true;
 
+    var skipThisEntry = false;
+
     var time = json[1];
     var team = json[2].plext.team === 'ALIENS' ? TEAM_ENL : TEAM_RES;
     var auto = json[2].plext.plextType !== 'PLAYER_GENERATED';
-    var msg = '', nick, pguid;
+    var msg = '', nick = '', pguid;
     $.each(json[2].plext.markup, function(ind, markup) {
       switch(markup[0]) {
       case 'SENDER': // user generated messages
@@ -281,12 +283,12 @@ window.chat.writeDataToHash = function(newData, storageHash, skipSecureMsgs) {
 
       case 'SECURE':
         if(skipSecureMsgs) {
-          nick = null;
+          skipThisEntry = true;
           return false; // breaks $.each
         }
       }
     });
-    if(!nick) return true; // aka next
+    if(skipThisEntry) return true;
 
     // format: timestamp, autogenerated, HTML message, player guid
     storageHash[json[0]] = [json[1], auto, chat.renderMsg(msg, nick, time, team), pguid];