Weird characters added to first column name after reading a toad-exported csv file

Question

Whenever I read a csv file in R (read.csv(\"file_name.csv\")) that was exported using toad, the first column name is preceded by the following char

Answer 1

I know this is a very old question, but the easiest solution I have found, is to use NotePad++. Open the CSV file in NotePad++, click "Encoding" and select "Encode in UTF-8" and save the file. It removes the BOM, and the original code should work.