attachment = file.read
begin
# Try it as UTF-8 directly
cleaned = attachment.dup.force_encoding('UTF-8')
unless cleaned.valid_encoding?
# Some of it might be old Windows code page
cleaned = attachment.encode( 'UTF-8', 'Windows-1252' )
end
attachment = cleaned
rescue EncodingError
# Force it to UTF-8, throwing out invalid bits
attachment = attachment.force_encoding("ISO-8859-1").encode("utf-8", replace: nil)
end