Twenty-two women are taking the claim in the San Diego Superior Court against adult video provider Girls Do Porn, alleging the company advertised themselves as a modelling website and lied about the distribution of the material, claiming it would only be sold on DVD to "private collectors" and "small video stores" in New Zealand, Australia and Europe, reports The Daily Beast.
The suit alleges that Girls Do Porn targeted them with ads on Craiglist for models, posting the advertisements to major cities across the US.
Women were asked to submit photos of themselves and state their age and body dimensions.
The women, all named as Jane Doe in the lawsuit, allege that they were then contacted by a man who explained that the modeling job was in fact "adult" video, promising the women at least USD$4,000 ($6,300).
The women were assured that they would remain anonymous.
Court documents show that Jane Doe 15 received an email from a man named "Jonathan", which read: "None of your personal information will be given out in the video or afterwards, no names etc. are used in the video."
Girls Do Porn allegedly used former models to convince the young women to pose, with one 19-year-old, named as Kaitlin, texting Jane Doe 15: "Yeah, so it goes out to wealthier countries; yea DVDs and stuff like that but nothing online!"
Women who agreed were then flown to luxury hotels in San Diego to meet with Kiwi expat Michael Pratt and his staff.
Pratt claims that they were presented with a contract to sign, in which they agreed to the terms of the shoot and the distribution of the material.
The Jane Does say they were discouraged from reading the contact.
Many of the complainants say they were abused during the filming, and then underpaid.
One woman, who received only $US400 ($NZ633) for her shoot, claims that she suffered extreme pain but was not allowed to end the filming.
She also alleges she was then locked out of the hotel room and told to find her own accommodation.
The suit alleges the resulting videos were posted directly to the internet where they have been hugely popular.
By 2016, the company's videos have been viewed 667,612,456 times on PornHub, reports The Daily Beast.
Girls Do Porn developed a huge following and its dedicated fans obsessed over the amateur actresses, sparking web forums where users revealed the women's real names, hometowns and social media accounts.
Some of the women lost their jobs or were expelled from universities with the fallout even costing a Miss Teen Delaware winner her crown.
