"The store reps are not government officials or police officers, nor do they scan ids."
Neither they are here (in EU), but nobody is going to talk to you unless you provide an ID anyway. Asking for ID doesn't seem too hard, even for non-trained personnel. You don't have to be a detective to match name/code on ID with the name/code on account.
Having access to potentially thousands of dollars from cleaning up victim's accounts is an incentive to go and obtain a fake ID. Do the store clerks scan and verify that the ID is genuine somehow (check against a database, look at the photo) or do they just look at it in passing and give it back.
From an EU perspective, obtaining a fake ID isn't that likely - counterfeiting anything certainly is possible, but it's hard and expensive (harder than counterfeiting money), risky (being caught with a fake means jail time, it's a more severe crime than theft and there's no "take-backsies" if they don't like the ID) so fraud with fake IDs is extremely rare.
It may happen with certain large scale scams involving organized crime, but not for small amounts; it simply doesn't show up in practice. What does happen is use of real IDs that are stolen (or bought from homeless people), but most places that have some risks have access to registries where they can verify if the ID has been reported as stolen.
Sure, but the excuse is then, "I had everything stolen! My phone, my wallet, etc. I just need to get my phone back so I can pay my rent and get an Uber to the DMV to get my new license." Then if the clerk says, "Sorry can't help you until you have an ID," you freak out and start yelling and the manager comes over and says, "I'm so sorry sir, let's get this worked out," and does whatever you ask him to.
Not happening in EU - since in such a case the company not verifying the ID tend to get liability for losses, all companies have policies where such managers are prohibited to do so; they would be risking their own money (and job) for giving you stuff without proper authorisation.
I mean, as soon word would get out that some company allows that, they'd be exploited for free stuff in large amounts; all of the obvious loopholes have been tried and plugged in the last couple decades. USA has the problems only because they treat it as "stolen identity" instead of "someone defrauded a company with fake ID", and don't have proper universal IDs and try to make do with a mishmash of driver licences, names, addresses, SSNs, etc.
Neither they are here (in EU), but nobody is going to talk to you unless you provide an ID anyway. Asking for ID doesn't seem too hard, even for non-trained personnel. You don't have to be a detective to match name/code on ID with the name/code on account.