Over 38,000 of these customers, unaware that their calls to download erotica had been rerouted— felt duped inasmuch as they'd been expecting customary charges from their local providers— but later received telephone statements that in numerous cases ran into many thousands of dollars.

Certain sites on the World Wide Web, after promising users they would be able to freely download software to access the erotic photography, became defendants in a case that may serve henceforth as a symbol to assure justice for Internet users similarly misled.

The refunds, according to the Federal Trade Commission, were part of two settlements reached involving cost-heavy international telephone lines. Without customers' knowledge, the software program they "freely" downloaded switched them from their local providers and reconnecting through an eastern European nation, Moldova.

As a result, Internet transmission costs jumped astronomically after they were rerouted from Moldova to a Canadian site charging high Moldova phone rates.

The unexpected Moldova telephone costs ran at a rate of $2 per minute.

An initial settlement, filed last Tuesday in a United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, involved Promo Line Inc., Internet Girls Inc. and Audiotex Connection Inc., all of which operate in New York State. Three persons from the companies were also cited in the settlement.

A second settlement, also reached Tuesday, involved both a New York State company, Nightline Media Inc. and Beylen Telecom Ltd.in the Caymen Islands.

The offending companies are required, according to the rules of the settlement, to pay ATT&T and MCI the nearly $3 million needed for customer refunds. Both long-distance companies, as a result, will send credits to the unhappy customers.

The Federal Trade Commission, thereafter, will issue refunds to those Internet users whose bills ran into uncommonly high figures as a result of their unwelcome connections with the aforementioned companies.