diff --git a/deluser.sh b/deluser.sh
index b9cf7dd..1687dcd 100755
--- a/deluser.sh
+++ b/deluser.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 SLBRUSER=$1
 test -z "$SLBRUSER" && echo "no user provided" && exit
-grep -qv "$SLBRUSER" users.txt && echo "user not found in users.txt, will not delete" && exit
+grep -qvx "$SLBRUSER" users.txt && echo "user not found in users.txt, will not delete" && exit
 
 if ps -o stat= -p $PPID | grep -qv S+ #check if this is being called from listen.py
 then
diff --git a/newuser.sh b/newuser.sh
index a40eecf..6bb1779 100755
--- a/newuser.sh
+++ b/newuser.sh
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ test -z "$SLBRUSER" && echo "no user provided" && exit
 test -z "$PUBKEY" && echo "no key provided" && exit
 PUBKEY="$(cat "$PUBKEY")"
 
-cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd | grep -q "$SLBRUSER" && echo "user already exists" && exit
+cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd | grep -qx "$SLBRUSER" && echo "user already exists" && exit
 
 echo "Creating homedir..."
 mkdir "/home/slbr/$SLBRUSER"