diff --git a/src/pl/plperl/plperl_helpers.h b/src/pl/plperl/plperl_helpers.h
index 2c17790062..6b714e52a1 100644
--- a/src/pl/plperl/plperl_helpers.h
+++ b/src/pl/plperl/plperl_helpers.h
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ sv2cstr(SV *sv)
 	else
 		/* increase the reference count so we can just SvREFCNT_dec() it when
 		 * we are done */
-		SvREFCNT_inc(sv);
+		SvREFCNT_inc_simple_void(sv);
 
 	val = SvPVutf8(sv, len);