"The Defense Information Systems Agency" in my logs!

I've got a competitor at the pentagon

[johannes]

I found a strange bloke in my logs.

Twice a week he comes around. Sometimes every day. He always searches for the same things, but in a different way every time so I know he's a human. He loads 5 or 6 pages, stays for 2 minutes.

He never buys anything. Sometimes he clicks on my Adwords, he can even click on some ads within seconds. A little click fraudster!

He must be a competitor. Checking out my site every now and then, he's been doing it for at least 10 months.

And the best of all, when I do a whois on his ip, I see he's at the Pentagon, "The Defense Information Systems Agency". I even get a room number. Cool!

This guy just irritates me. What should I do, block his ip? Or just be annoyed when I see his ip as one of my top users.

[operafan]

Maybe you can redirect him to a message " Buy something dude,if you like it so much " base on his IP. - TEmp him, lure him - provoke him :)

[grahamstewart]

Sometimes he clicks on my Adwords

Why block someone who visits regularly and clicks on your ads?

He might not be buying anything but he is still earning you money from the ads. Plus he is now a source of 'word of mouth' hits from his friends (or fellow agents) when they ask him "Where can I buy blue widgets?"

[johannes]

He might not be buying anything but he is still earning you money from the ads

No, he is clicking my Adwords at Google, so I pay.

[plumsauce]

.. clicking in seconds,

if he is on a fixed ip, which is implied by
the fact that you can differentiate him in
the logs, and you are charged each time, then
the adwords fraud prevention is not quite as
good as they claim it is.

+++

[ThomasB]

I would redirect him to the check-out page with the items he's looking for in his basket. Maybe then he knows that somebody found him. :)

[Shannon Moore]

A competitor?

Maybe he's just bored at work and likes your site?

Sometimes the simplest answer really is the correct one.

[johannes]

Maybe I should give him a message "kgb rules" or something next time.

[gussie]

Maybe he's developing a web site for his employer or himself and really likes your site. He may be dissecting your code and how everything works to teach himself something about how to build sites like yours. I have done this myself with sites that I would never have visited otherwise, let alone spent hours perusing. He may be showing others your site and using it as a teaching tool. He may be showing others your products and convincing them that they need a government contract to buy a zillion of them. Lucky you!

Or, they find suspiciously encoded "messages" on your site, and are monitoring it for signs of extra-terrestrial activity...

[balam]

FWIW, don't forget that (US) federal law states that it's illegal to use government computers for anything but government business...

This would have hit my "freaked-out & worried" threshold as soon as I saw it had been going on for almost a year! :)

Set up & redirect "him" to page that states that his visit is illegal if it isn't government business, and that his information has been logged and will be forwarded to the proper authorities... ;)

[Shannon Moore]

Now that's a way to win friends and influence enemies...

Offer him a discount as see if he bites. Otherwise, let him surf away.

"Official government business" -- isn't that an oxymoron, anyway?