diff --git a/lib/telnet.c b/lib/telnet.c
index 1ae15d3704..5144a1afa1 100644
--- a/lib/telnet.c
+++ b/lib/telnet.c
@@ -1371,7 +1371,7 @@ static CURLcode telnet_do(struct Curl_easy *data, bool *done)
   /* Tell Winsock what events we want to listen to */
   if(WSAEventSelect(sockfd, event_handle, FD_READ|FD_CLOSE) == SOCKET_ERROR) {
     WSACloseEvent(event_handle);
-    return CURLE_OK;
+    return CURLE_RECV_ERROR;
   }
 
   /* The get the Windows file handle for stdin */