Thousands of New York City consumers who purchased cigarettes from eSmokes.com will be forced to collectively cough up $33 million in unpaid taxes.

eSmokes will spit out to the NYC Department of Finance the names and addresses of 12,500 customers who bought from the Virginia-based distributor between 2002 and 2003.

"The city law department said eSmokes is bankrupt. Telephone numbers listed for the company were disconnected, and e-mails seeking comment weren't returned," reports Business Week. Perhaps their electronic voice box was just out of batteries.

Internet Cigarette Purchases Costing NYC [Business Week] (Thanks to Joel!)