diff --git a/fuzzywuzzy/process.py b/fuzzywuzzy/process.py
index decc0193..f31dbe82 100644
--- a/fuzzywuzzy/process.py
+++ b/fuzzywuzzy/process.py
@@ -197,7 +197,7 @@ def dedupe (contains_dupes, threshold=70, scorer=fuzz.token_set_ratio):
     # iterate over items in *contains_dupes*
     for item in contains_dupes:
         # return all duplicate matches found
-        matches = process.extract(item, contains_dupes, limit=None, scorer=scorer)
+        matches = extract(item, contains_dupes, limit=None, scorer=scorer)
         # filter matches based on the threshold 
         filtered = [x for x in matches if x[1] > threshold]
         # if there is only 1 item in *filtered*, no duplicates were found so append to *extracted*
@@ -217,5 +217,10 @@ def dedupe (contains_dupes, threshold=70, scorer=fuzz.token_set_ratio):
     for e in extractor:
         keys[e] = 1
     extractor = keys.keys()
- 
-    return extractor
+    
+    # check that extractor differs from contain_dupes (e.g. duplicates were found)
+    # if not, then return the original list
+    if len(extractor) == len(contains_dupes):
+        return contains_dupes
+    else:
+        return extractor
diff --git a/test_fuzzywuzzy.py b/test_fuzzywuzzy.py
index 1c243f1b..1369d79e 100644
--- a/test_fuzzywuzzy.py
+++ b/test_fuzzywuzzy.py
@@ -447,6 +447,28 @@ def test_dict_like_extract(self):
         for value, confidence, key in result:
             self.assertTrue(value in choices.values())
 
+    def test_dedupe(self):
+        """We should be able to use a list-like object for contains_dupes
+        """
+        ## Test 1
+        contains_dupes = ['Frodo Baggins', 'Tom Sawyer', 'Bilbo Baggin', 'Samuel L. Jackson', 'F. Baggins', 'Frody Baggins', 'Bilbo Baggins']
+        
+        # Note that the ordering will differ due to the alpha then length sort
+        deduped_list = ['Frodo Baggins', 'Samuel L. Jackson', 'Bilbo Baggins', 'Tom Sawyer'] 
+
+        result = process.dedupe(contains_dupes)
+        self.assertEqual(result, deduped_list)
+
+
+        ## Test 2
+        contains_dupes = ['Tom', 'Dick', 'Harry']
+        
+        # we should end up with the same list since no duplicates are contained in the list (e.g. original list is returned)
+        deduped_list = ['Tom','Dick','Harry']
+
+        result = process.dedupe(contains_dupes)
+        self.assertEqual(result, deduped_list)
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()         # run all tests