diff --git a/scrapy/utils/curl.py b/scrapy/utils/curl.py
index 16639356e..67b22dbc5 100644
--- a/scrapy/utils/curl.py
+++ b/scrapy/utils/curl.py
@@ -17,8 +17,8 @@ class CurlParser(argparse.ArgumentParser):
 curl_parser = CurlParser()
 curl_parser.add_argument('url')
 curl_parser.add_argument('-H', '--header', dest='headers', action='append')
-curl_parser.add_argument('-X', '--request', dest='method', default='get')
-curl_parser.add_argument('-d', '--data', dest='data')
+curl_parser.add_argument('-X', '--request', dest='method')
+curl_parser.add_argument('-d', '--data', '--data-raw', dest='data')
 curl_parser.add_argument('-u', '--user', dest='auth')
 
 
@@ -66,7 +66,9 @@ def curl_to_request_kwargs(curl_command, ignore_unknown_options=True):
     if not parsed_url.scheme:
         url = 'http://' + url
 
-    result = {'method': parsed_args.method.upper(), 'url': url}
+    method = parsed_args.method or 'GET'
+
+    result = {'method': method.upper(), 'url': url}
 
     headers = []
     cookies = {}
@@ -90,5 +92,9 @@ def curl_to_request_kwargs(curl_command, ignore_unknown_options=True):
         result['cookies'] = cookies
     if parsed_args.data:
         result['body'] = parsed_args.data
+        if not parsed_args.method:
+            # if the "data" is specified but the "method" is not specified,
+            # the default method is 'POST'
+            result['method'] = 'POST'
 
     return result
diff --git a/tests/test_utils_curl.py b/tests/test_utils_curl.py
index 50e1bfd5f..299a51efe 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils_curl.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils_curl.py
@@ -141,6 +141,31 @@ class CurlToRequestKwargsTest(unittest.TestCase):
         }
         self._test_command(curl_command, expected_result)
 
+    def test_post_data_raw(self):
+        curl_command = (
+            "curl 'https://www.example.org/' --data-raw 'excerptLength=200&ena"
+            "bleDidYouMean=true&sortCriteria=ffirstz32xnamez32x201740686%20asc"
+            "ending&queryFunctions=%5B%5D&rankingFunctions=%5B%5D'"
+        )
+        expected_result = {
+            "method": "POST",
+            "url": "https://www.example.org/",
+            "body": (
+                "excerptLength=200&enableDidYouMean=true&sortCriteria=ffirstz3"
+                "2xnamez32x201740686%20ascending&queryFunctions=%5B%5D&ranking"
+                "Functions=%5B%5D")
+        }
+        self._test_command(curl_command, expected_result)
+
+    def test_explicit_get_with_data(self):
+        curl_command = 'curl httpbin.org/anything -X GET --data asdf'
+        expected_result = {
+            "method": "GET",
+            "url": "http://httpbin.org/anything",
+            "body": "asdf"
+        }
+        self._test_command(curl_command, expected_result)
+
     def test_patch(self):
         curl_command = (
             'curl "https://example.com/api/fake" -u "username:password" -H "Ac'