THE CUTTING EDGE/TECHNOLOGY NEWS : U.S., Australia Crack Down on ‘Page-Jacking’ : Internet: FTC officials said some Web users who clicked on sites from search engines were switched to pornographic sites.

The United States and Australia on Wednesday announced raids and a crackdown on people who moved Web users from the sites they wanted to pornographic sites--and would not let them leave.

The Federal Trade Commission in Washington characterized the scheme as the “page-jacking” of as many as 25 million of the roughly 1 billion World Wide Web pages.

At a news conference, FTC officials said when Web users clicked on sites from search engines, they were switched instead to pornographic sites. Attempts to back up the Web browser or shut it down moved the users to yet other pornographic sites.

Jodie Bernstein, head of the consumer division at the FTC, said the hijacked sites ranged from the Harvard Law Review to the Japanese Friendship Garden.

“When consumers used search engines to find subjects as innocent as ‘Kids on the Net,’ ‘News about Kosovo,’ or ‘Wedding Services,’ they risked being exposed to a torrent of tawdry images,” she said at a news conference.

The FTC theorized that the page-jackers made money by selling ads, showing clients that they had received a large number of page “hits.” The hits, of course, were forced on unwilling users.

Allan Asher, deputy chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, said by videophone from Canberra that law enforcement authorities had raided eight locations hours earlier, gathering information for possible criminal prosecution or civil action.

Asher mentioned no names. But legal papers said the Australians were looking at W.T.F.R.C. Pty Ltd., doing business as Kewl Photographies, Kool Images, taboosisters, taboohardcore.com and tabooanimals.com.

The Australians allegedly set up “mousetraps,” which barred users from going anywhere except where the mousetrap sends them. Java software must be enabled for that to happen, the FTC said.

A federal court in Alexandria, Va., shut down Web access for Carlos Pereira of Portugal, doing business as Atariz.com, among other names.

FTC officials said the Portuguese Instituto do Consumidor had cooperated in investigations of Pereira, who allegedly page-jacked the sites by copying the pages and then resubmitting them to search engines with false addresses.

Bernstein presented lawyer John Fischer of Irving, Texas, who said his client, Newworld.com, owner of the game site Adrenaline Vault, at Avault.com, was hijacked.

In court papers, Fischer said the company was considering the possible sale of a share of Adrenaline Vault to investors for more than $20 million when the hijacking occurred.

“We lost thousands of dollars a day” in value, Fischer told the news conference, until he got search engines to restore access.

Fischer said he sought help without success from the FBI, state and local authorities. Eventually, the FTC became involved, exercising its authority to act against deception and unfairness to consumers.