Smokers who have purchased cigarettes online should beware: They may soon get a tax bill for cigarettes bought via the Internet as long as six years ago.

Mayor Bloomberg announced a settlement yesterday with a Virginia based company called eSmokes that will allow the city and state to collect $33 million in cigarette taxes that were never paid between 2000 and 2003.

The settlement, which is linked to a lawsuit the city filed in 2003 against companies selling tax-free cigarettes to New Yorkers, required eSmokes to turn over the names of those who bought its products and to disclose how many packs or cartons they purchased.

The agreement is the latest chapter in Mr. Bloomberg’s crackdown on Internet cigarette sales and the largest potential tax recovery of its kind for the city and state. Since 2003, the city has collected about $1 million in damages from several other companies for not paying taxes.

“Internet cigarette merchants who misrepresent themselves and evade the law cheat local businesses and New Yorkers,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a statement. “They mislead the public; they break the law; and they will be held accountable.”

A spokesman for the city’s Department of Finance, Owen Stone, said the agency is preparing 12,500 letters that will be sent in April notifying buyers what they owe. Because the settlement window covers 2000 to 2003, which was largely before the city’s 2002 cigarette tax hike went into effect, the state will get the lion’s share of whatever is recouped.

The city’s Department of Finance in the past has charged individual offenders as much as $43,000 in back taxes and fines. It still has a list of top offenders it is trying to get payments from.

The settlement ends the city’s dispute with eSmokes, which filed for bankruptcy protection in May. The city still has a number of pending lawsuits against other Internet companies. It claims that the companies violated the federal Jenkins Act, which requires vendors to report the sales to the state where they are being shipped.

New York City is not alone in aggressively going after online cigarette vendors. It is one of several municipalities – most of the others are states – that have settled with eSmokes. In October, the company turned over the names of Massachusetts residents who purchased more than 130,000 cartons of cigarettes between November 2003 and February.

The city and state each charge $1.50 for a pack of cigarettes, but Governor Pataki wants to increase the state portion to $2.50 and Mr. Bloomberg has proposed raising the city portion to $2 this year.

Yesterday the majority leader in the state Senate, Joseph Bruno, said he is against tax increases in the next budget.

The lawsuits are just one portion of Mr. Bloomberg’s assault on big tobacco. He has argued that the city’s smoking ban for bars and restaurants, which he shepherded through, and the tax hikes he has proposed will deter people from smoking and improve public health.

The founder of a smokers’ rights group called New York City Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, Audrey Silk, said it is unfair to target those who buy cigarettes online. Ms. Silk said it was a “damn shame” that eSmoke had to turn over its private records. She said it’s “not something you would expect in America.”