diff --git a/source/simple_socketio.ts b/source/simple_socketio.ts
index 9e288b2..c7d990a 100644
--- a/source/simple_socketio.ts
+++ b/source/simple_socketio.ts
@@ -201,10 +201,17 @@ export default class SimpleSocketIOClient {
   }
   /**
    * Handles WebSocket messages
+   * The messages are a version of the socket.io message protocol
+   * from before v1. The messages are formatted with the first character
+   * being an number, the packet type (see PACKET_TYPES const for available types).
+   * It is followed by two or three colons depending on if the packet type has data
+   * or not. For example heartbeat, "2::", does not contain data, while message, "3:::Hello", does.
+   *
    * @private
    */
   private handleMessage(event: MessageEvent): void {
-    const [packetType, data] = event.data.split(/:::?/);
+    const packetType = event.data[0]; // Get the first character of the message, the packet type
+    const data = event.data.replace(/^\d:::?/, ""); // Remove the packet type and the : that split message parts.
     if (packetType === PACKET_TYPES.event) {
       const parsedData = JSON.parse(data) as Payload;
       const { name, args } = parsedData;
diff --git a/test/simple_socketio.test.js b/test/simple_socketio.test.js
index 96a6e17..ed54dc1 100644
--- a/test/simple_socketio.test.js
+++ b/test/simple_socketio.test.js
@@ -225,6 +225,18 @@ describe("Tests using SimpleSocketIOClient", () => {
       expect(client.handleEvent).toHaveBeenCalledWith(eventName, eventData);
     });
 
+    test("handleMessage correctly handles data with '::' in it", () => {
+      const eventName = "testEvent";
+      const eventData = { foo: "::bar" };
+      const packetData = JSON.stringify({ name: eventName, args: [eventData] });
+
+      vi.spyOn(client, "handleEvent");
+
+      client.handleMessage({ data: `${PACKET_TYPES.event}:::${packetData}` });
+
+      expect(client.handleEvent).toHaveBeenCalledWith(eventName, eventData);
+    });
+
     test("handleMessage correctly handles heartbeat packet type", () => {
       client.webSocket = createWebSocketMock();