flexmail going to card name instead of email address

Sending mailconfig: {:bcc=>"", :to=>"John Abbe+*email", :attach=>"", :from=>"johnca@ourpla.net", :Subject=>"will it work", :message=>"<p><p>finally</p></p>", :cc=>""}
Sent mail to John Abbe+*email

Net::SMTPSyntaxError (501 5.1.3 Bad recipient address syntax
):

From Net::SMTPSyntaxError: 501 5.1.3 Bad recipient address syntax

Tested with http://fortzed.dwagn.org/new/Group_email?_to=%5B%5BTerritory_32%2Bpack_leaders_in_territory%2Buser_email_addresses%5D%5D and the card was created and looks okay: http://fortzed.dwagn.org/wagn/00000000000002