This looks like its just the utf8 bytes coded in hex.

$_=~s/<([a-f0-9][a-f0-9])>/chr(hex($1))/ieg;
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This will reverse it (as long as people arn't in the habit of submitting <E2> and meaning it.
I think <E2><80><9D> is the so called smart quote( I vaguely recall seeing it somewhere).