diff --git a/bindings/java/src/org/sleuthkit/datamodel/CommunicationsUtils.java b/bindings/java/src/org/sleuthkit/datamodel/CommunicationsUtils.java
index ffac95635f13d930dbca054ac4ebc1bf3f542791..0e603bef0efa88bc6751bea243b9da5616f3480f 100644
--- a/bindings/java/src/org/sleuthkit/datamodel/CommunicationsUtils.java
+++ b/bindings/java/src/org/sleuthkit/datamodel/CommunicationsUtils.java
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ private CommunicationsUtils() {
 	 * 
 	 */
 	public static String normalizePhoneNum(String phoneNum) throws TskCoreException {
-		if (phoneNum.matches("\\+?[0-9()\\-\\s]+")) {
+		if (isValidPhoneNumber(phoneNum)) {
            return phoneNum.replaceAll("[^0-9\\+]", "");
         } else {
             throw new TskCoreException(String.format("Input string is not a valid phone number: %s", phoneNum));