ndap.net

If you have SSH access to your mail server, fetchmail can automatically create a secure SSH tunnel through which to retrieve email. Use the preconnect configuration option in ~/.fetchmailrc:

poll localhost service PORT with proto POP3
  password "secretpass"
  preconnect 'ssh -f -C -L localhost:PORT:localhost:REMOTEPORT
              USERATHOST sleep 3 < /dev/null > /dev/null'

The preconnect option should be on a single line. Replace PORT, REMOTEPORT, and USERATHOST with your own values.

PORT

The port number on your own desktop or laptop computer that fetchmail should connect to.

REMOTEPORT

The port on the mail server which we want to connect to. For a POP3 server it is port number 110.

USERATHOST

User name and hostname that SSH shall use to connect to the mail server. Example: username@my.mailserver.com

sleep 3

A command for SSH to run on the remote host. SSH will disconnect when the command has run. (sleep 3 gives fetchmail time to connect to the remote mail server. SSH will notice that the forwarded port is used and won't disconnect until fetchmail has finished.)