diff -urN ../exim-4.86.orig/src/spam.c ./src/spam.c
--- ../exim-4.86.orig/src/spam.c	2015-07-24 00:20:37.000000000 +0300
+++ ./src/spam.c	2018-05-01 19:29:12.750868000 +0300
@@ -212,6 +212,9 @@
 uschar *spamd_address_work;
 spamd_address_container * sd;
 
+int try_count = 3;
+next_attempt:
+
 /* stop compiler warning */
 result = 0;
 
@@ -522,6 +525,11 @@
 /* reading done */
 (void)close(spamd_sock);
 
+if (spamd_buffer[0] == 0) {
+  try_count--;
+  if (try_count > 0) goto next_attempt;
+}
+
 if (sd->is_rspamd)
   {				/* rspamd variant of reply */
   int r;