diff --git a/Lib/poplib.py b/Lib/poplib.py
index 4e2c03b..ef60c74 100644
--- a/Lib/poplib.py
+++ b/Lib/poplib.py
@@ -340,7 +340,7 @@
                 continue
             break
         if not self.sock:
-            raise socket.error, msg
+            raise socket.error(msg)
         self.file = self.sock.makefile('rb')
         self.sslobj = socket.ssl(self.sock, self.keyfile, self.certfile)
         self._debugging = 0