Asking the clerk to verify the photo ID in place of a Facebook account was a bit strange.
You'd probably have an inkling that their authentication is based on Facebook, so the photo ID thing is highly unlikely to work. (It seemed to be said more to counter the clerk's statement of not being able to validate users than a proposal of a real solution).
The clerk actually provided a real, practical solution (fake account) that the author does not seem to think very highly of.
I've had one for years, and he has real friends and everything. I use it for testing my own apps and signing up for other peoples apps I don't trust. But it's been a great help when there are services I want to use that require FB. Ya, against the rules, but I'm not the only one, and my fake users friends are real people who chat about politics and have liked some of the things my fake profile has liked.
Can you even create fake Facebook accounts these days? I have a real one that I never verified years ago, and Facebook would always ask for verification, but allow the account to still be used. However, I tried to create a fake one, and within hours, Facebook locked the account, and claimed it needed to be verified with a phone number to continue. I tried it a few times, from different IPs, and they required a phone number within a day for each account.
You could buy a throw away cell phone for verification, which is what some people do after I did a little research, but it's more effort than I'm willing to spend.
These were not obvious fake accounts, I create a realistic fake name, location, and a couple of interests. At the time, it seemed all new accounts would require a phone number shortly after registration. I imagine it's still the same.
In conclusion, I just don't use Facebook. If I'm not willing to bend over and give up my privacy, they don't want my business. So, I don't use them, and don't implement anything Facebook related across my sites.
That is possible to do now. I'm however convinced that there will be a day when creating such an account will be more difficult (phone number needed etc). That day will most likely come after the Facebook WiFi router is widely implemented.
It's a FAKE NAME. If it's disabled, just make a new one. Hell, you could make a new account every time you log on with a random bang-on-the-keyboard password, what's the difference?
(This is a serious question - I imagine there are real reasons why not, I just can't think of any myself apart from inconvenience/general principle).