Even if they have a "real" picture or a credible description that is not good enough. Instead of using an anime character a malicious actor could use an image generator [0], they could generate a few images, obtain something credible to most folks, and use that to get a few fake identities going. Sadly, trusting people to be the real thing and not a fake identity on the Internet is difficult now and it will get worse.

[0] https://thispersondoesnotexist.com

You can quite easily generate a realistic photo, bio, even entire personal blogs and GitHub projects, using generative AI, to make it look like it's a real person.

It has been on the agenda for years to identify FOSS contributors with an id… Wet dream for authoritarians like you.

What would it solve when identity theft happens on a mass scale on a day to day basis?

It'd just ruin the life of some random person whose identity got stolen to create the account…