diff --git a/com.woltlab.wcf/templates/userBBCodeTag.tpl b/com.woltlab.wcf/templates/userBBCodeTag.tpl
index 369371df25c..dbe32b29d2a 100644
--- a/com.woltlab.wcf/templates/userBBCodeTag.tpl
+++ b/com.woltlab.wcf/templates/userBBCodeTag.tpl
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {if $userProfile === null}
 	{* user no longer exists, use plain output rather than using a broken link *}
-	{$username}{* no newline after the tag
+	@{$username}{* no newline after the tag
 *}{else}
 	<a href="{link controller='User' object=$userProfile->getDecoratedObject()}{/link}" class="userMention userLink" data-object-id="{@$userProfile->userID}">{@$userProfile->getFormattedUsername()}</a>{* no newline after the tag
 *}{/if}
diff --git a/wcfsetup/install/files/acp/templates/userBBCodeTag.tpl b/wcfsetup/install/files/acp/templates/userBBCodeTag.tpl
index 369371df25c..dbe32b29d2a 100644
--- a/wcfsetup/install/files/acp/templates/userBBCodeTag.tpl
+++ b/wcfsetup/install/files/acp/templates/userBBCodeTag.tpl
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {if $userProfile === null}
 	{* user no longer exists, use plain output rather than using a broken link *}
-	{$username}{* no newline after the tag
+	@{$username}{* no newline after the tag
 *}{else}
 	<a href="{link controller='User' object=$userProfile->getDecoratedObject()}{/link}" class="userMention userLink" data-object-id="{@$userProfile->userID}">{@$userProfile->getFormattedUsername()}</a>{* no newline after the tag
 *}{/if}
diff --git a/wcfsetup/install/files/lib/system/bbcode/UserBBCode.class.php b/wcfsetup/install/files/lib/system/bbcode/UserBBCode.class.php
index 0b0d4c290b3..d96c4b5d2e9 100644
--- a/wcfsetup/install/files/lib/system/bbcode/UserBBCode.class.php
+++ b/wcfsetup/install/files/lib/system/bbcode/UserBBCode.class.php
@@ -21,10 +21,6 @@ final class UserBBCode extends AbstractBBCode
      */
     public function getParsedTag(array $openingTag, $content, array $closingTag, BBCodeParser $parser): string
     {
-        if (!\str_starts_with($content, "@")) {
-            $content = "@{$content}";
-        }
-
         $userID = (!empty($openingTag['attributes'][0])) ? \intval($openingTag['attributes'][0]) : 0;
         if (!$userID) {
             return "[user]{$content}[/user]";