diff --git a/scrapy/utils/curl.py b/scrapy/utils/curl.py
index ecfa292ea..9c98e4cb8 100644
--- a/scrapy/utils/curl.py
+++ b/scrapy/utils/curl.py
@@ -11,8 +11,7 @@ from w3lib.http import basic_auth_header
 class DataAction(argparse.Action):
     def __call__(self, parser, namespace, values, option_string=None):
         value = str(values).encode("utf-8").decode("utf-8")
-        items = re.findall(r"\$(.+)", value)
-        value = items[0] if items else value
+        value = value[1::] if re.match(r"^\$(.+)", value) else value
         setattr(namespace, self.dest, value)