diff --git a/lib/customer_fwd.rb b/lib/customer_fwd.rb
index bee076d3acf7b65b6fdd6cd618d364a6a366981f..22a83c68685f64585e0a0436db9662d178909ea1 100644
--- a/lib/customer_fwd.rb
+++ b/lib/customer_fwd.rb
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ class CustomerFwd
 				uri = "xmpp:#{$1.gsub(/%([0-9A-F]{2})/i) { $1.to_i(16).chr }}"
 			end
 
-			URIS.fetch(uri.split(":", 2).first.to_sym) {
+			URIS.fetch(uri.split(":", 2).first&.to_sym) {
 				raise "Unknown forward URI: #{uri}"
 			}.new(uri: uri, timeout: timeout)
 		end
diff --git a/test/test_customer_fwd.rb b/test/test_customer_fwd.rb
index 440985344ca25e8942537b054be332fa2aefb8be..3751364685fa465b8244ae1ae3ac7e8c3ea4f792 100644
--- a/test/test_customer_fwd.rb
+++ b/test/test_customer_fwd.rb
@@ -59,4 +59,10 @@ class CustomerFwdTest < Minitest::Test
 			CustomerFwd.for(uri: "bogus:#{bogus}", timeout: 10)
 		end
 	end
+
+	def test_for_empty
+		assert_raises(RuntimeError) do
+			CustomerFwd.for(uri: "", timeout: 10)
+		end
+	end
 end