A BRITISH teenager was sent dozens of terrifying death threats from jealous Justin Bieber fans after the Canadian popstar retweeted one of her messages.
Schoolgirl Courtney Barrasford, 15, took to Twitter to post a glowing review of his new album Believe Acoustic.
And she was stunned when 19-year-old Bieber reposted it for his 34 million followers - known as Beliebers - to see.
But many were outraged Courtney had caught his attention despite saying in her tweet that she was not usually a fan.
Others have tried for years to catch the Baby singer's eye without success.
Courtney, from Portsmouth, Hants, wrote: "Not really a fan of Justin Bieber but his acoustic album is really good!
She was soon bombarded with dozens of hate-filled messages telling her to kill herself, and calling her vile names, such as "whore".
Some bitter fans even circulated rumours that she was dating Bieber and was pregnant with his child.
The tweets included: "I am a Belieber of him since 2009 and he didn't notice me. And you're not even a f***ing fan. You get noticed. OMG."
Another addressed to Bieber said: "U notice her n she's not even a fan. I am but you won't notice me :) Can anyone hear me crying? :'(
And a third sent to Courtney said: "You're so annoying. You're not even a fan!"
She today told of the abuse she suffered, saying: "I came back from a drama class where everyone had been going on about how good Justin Bieber's acoustic album was.
"So I went on to YouTube to listen to it and then put my comment up on the internet.
"About 10 minutes later my friend sent me a message to say she noticed something on Twitter.
"It wasn't too bad at first.
"Some people were saying I was lucky I was retweeted by him and some were jealous.
"But then it started to get worse as more people found out.
"I had things like 'you're not a fan, go kill yourself'."
Courtney added: "It was getting completely out of hand. So far things hadn't got to me.
"But then they started saying I was pregnant with his child, and that my child would be a prostitute."
One girl who sent Courtney messages claimed to be a 12-year-old fan from America. She put: "Just tell her to die and leave Justin alone."
Courtney's mum, Tina, 45, a warehouse operator, said: "It's all silly and has got out of control. It's because of jealously, and all because of a retweet.
"These sites need more monitoring by those that run them and parents of children that use them.
"I wonder if the parent of the 12-year-old knows about what her daughter has been posting."
Courtney is now warning other social network users to be careful of what they post.
She said: "I don't think these people would say it face-to-face. But it's still not nice to hear.
"I would say to people to ignore it and stop using the site for a while.
"Don't reply to these people because they will only hate you more."
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is dedicated to protecting children online.
It monitors incidents such as this.
A CEOP spokesman said: "Social networks online are an increasingly important part of young people's lives for self expression and communication.
"They take risks online, perhaps more so than in the real world, as the computer screen provides the illusion of anonymity and safety.
"Sometimes young people post without considering the consequences.
"It's important young people know what to do when something goes wrong.
"In the first instance they should flag up offensive comments through the site's reporting page.
"Children can also access support through the BeatBullying Charity, by phoning ChildLine or reporting inappropriate sexual comments to CEOP."
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