User blog comment:The Ultimate Thinker/How to catch a Sock Puppet?/@comment-961279-20140823073323

A problem user once asked me, "How do you always catch my sockpuppet accounts?" The simplest answer I can give to that kind of question is, "You told me yourself." Humans are creatures of habits, and vandals even more so. They typically have a specific type of vandalism that they like to commit. If you pay attention, you'll spot patterns and things that are in common in the edits between accounts and IP addresses, such as a phrase they keep using or a particular subject they focus on. That may help you tie accounts and/or IP addresses together. But just remember to not automatically assume that two people doing the same thing means they are the same person. It could be a coincidence, so look further to verify whether they are or not and be willing to admit you could be wrong about them.

As for the timing of the edits, as noted in other comments, it's possible to be logged in under more than one account at the same time. Some web browsers will use the same login for all tabs and windows, while others will treat each tab and window as unique.