Gobbly Gook Emails?

My uncle keeps trying to send emails to his sister (my mom) and something is screwy with his email. I'm assuming when he actually types out the email it looks fine but when it arrives it is all gobbly gook, below is a one sentence email he sent my mom:

*atty 5 cann6t send y64 a n6te beca4se s60et6h5ng has g6ne bad 6n 0y c60*4t6r. 36ve y64 R.G.

My uncle is close to 80 so don't think he knows alot about computers but he used to be able to send emails fine. I noticed his email address is ....@aol.com and I'm not that familar with AOL if this has anything to do with it.

Any idea what the problem could be? If it's a virus causing it wouldn't my mom's anti-virus or anti-spyware alert her when opening the emails? I know the emails have not infected her computer and I'm pretty sure anyone he sends emails to gets the gobbly gook sentences.

 

Thanks Pete I did find out they appeared gobbly gook before he emailed them. Since he has a laptop I will tell him to have someone uninstall and then reinstall the keyboard drivers to see if that fixes the problem.

If it turns out to be a bad keyboard is it usually too expensive to replace them?

 

Hi, mccoady.

If you can provide the brand and model number of your uncle's laptop, then we might be able to help you find a replacement replacement keyboard, the cost, and detailed instructions about how to replace the keyboard yourself.

You might even be able to locate a suitable laptop keyboard on eBay if you want to pursue that route.

 

Sorry I haven't heard back from my uncle he lives in one state and I live in another, before I had emailed him about it being either bad keyboard drivers or a bad keyboard he tried taking it back to Best Buy for Service. I guess they weren't very nice to him there so he picked it up and walked out. His grandson is supposed to be visiting now and hopes to get him fixed up but I haven't heard anything. Yes he even though he says he didn't spill anything on it it might have as he's getting up in age (80).