RequestParam with special character '+'
<p>in my Controller I have the requestMapping "searchUser" with 4 request parameters.
For the request parameter "phoneNumber" I also accept special characters like '(' , ')', '-' and '+'.</p>

<p>Expect of the character '+' all characters are shown in my log. If I send for example the values like "+123" or "123+1" I get i my controller " 123" and "123 1"
It replaces the "+" with a space.</p>

<p>It only happens with '+'</p>

<pre><code>@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET, value = "/search", produces = "application/json")
    public List&lt;User&gt; getWebUserProfiles(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response,
        @RequestParam("firstName") String firstName, @RequestParam("lastName") String lastName,
        @RequestParam("email") String email
        @RequestParam("phoneNumber") String phoneNumber);
</code></pre>

<p>Do you know what I have to add?</p>

<p>thanks in advance!</p>

<p>UPDATE:</p>

<p>I using Angular 2 for my frontend where I have a form and I send the values further to my spring-boot backend. 
My http-service in angular:</p>

<pre><code>   search(searchParams: any){
        let params = new URLSearchParams();
        params.set('firstName', searchParams.firstName);
        params.set('lastName', searchParams.lastName);
        params.set('email', searchParams.email);
        params.set('phoneNumber', searchParams.phoneNumber);

        return this._http.get(this.baseURL+'search', 
                        { search:params })
                        .map(response =&gt; response.json())
                        .catch(this.handleError);
    }
</code></pre>