diff --git a/submit.go b/submit.go
index 52825ac..4fc8ceb 100644
--- a/submit.go
+++ b/submit.go
@@ -120,11 +120,13 @@ type submitResponse struct {
 	ReportURL string `json:"report_url,omitempty"`
 }
 
-// regex to catch and substitute ambiguous issue references with explicit ones to the actual repo they are in
-var ambiguousIssueRegex = regexp.MustCompile(`(^|[([{\s])(#\d+)([^\w]|$)`)
+// regex to match and substitute ambiguous issue references in the rageshake body text
+// matches a hash followed by digits optionally surrounded by whitespace or some punctuation
+// also matches if the input starts with digits where the hash becomes optional
+var ambiguousIssueRegex = regexp.MustCompile(`(^|[([{\s])(?:^|#)(\d+)([^\w]|$)`)
 
 func replaceAmbiguousIssueReferences(ownerRepo, text string) string {
-	t := ambiguousIssueRegex.ReplaceAllString(text, fmt.Sprintf("${1}%s$2$3", ownerRepo))
+	t := ambiguousIssueRegex.ReplaceAllString(text, fmt.Sprintf("${1}%s#$2$3", ownerRepo))
 	return t
 }
 
diff --git a/submit_test.go b/submit_test.go
index 499d1b8..06f9ee0 100644
--- a/submit_test.go
+++ b/submit_test.go
@@ -492,6 +492,8 @@ func TestAutocompleteIssueReferences(t *testing.T) {
 		"test (#123) bar":     "test (owner/repo#123) bar",     // brackets
 		"Start #123. Now":     "Start owner/repo#123. Now",     // followed by punctuation
 		"#123foo":             "#123foo",                       // ignore
+		"foo/#123":            "foo/#123",                      // ignore
+		"123":                 "owner/repo#123",                // special case for entire body being a number
 	}
 
 	for text, expect := range tests {