>In most of Europe (UK seems to be more like USA as far as I understand) passing on a counterfeit ID to a mobile shop is harder (and more rare) than paying with counterfeit money, the IDs can be checked, employees are required to verify online if that ID has been reported lost or stolen, etc.
Can you detail which "most" of Europe you are talking about?
In Italy, while obviously you have to produce an ID card, there is no way that it can be checked online by "an employer", only Police (and Carabinieri) can do those checks, and of course ony for Italian issued ID's, moreover in some other businesses besides SIM card selling where the ID is needed (as an example hotels, AirBnB's and similar, car or tools renting, etc.) the actual employee never had a formal, official training to recognize forged ID's so everything is demanded to the single employee common sense and experience/knowledge (often zero or next to zero).
Particularly with "foreign" or "uncommon" pieces of ID's even if Italian (besides the "normal" ID cards and passports there are a number of other documents that have ID value) it is extremely difficult to understand if it is forged.
In UK AFAIK there is no national ID card, so you are limited to passport and/or (if valid for the scope) the driver license.
Plus Italy's national ID is laughably insecure. It's a laminated piece of paper. I remember when I was growing up I had an Italian friend in the UK who went out to a bar for her actual 18th birthday. When they asked for ID, she showed it to them and they kicked us out because they thought it was fake. It was not.
No, it isn't (anymore), not everywhere, but in spots.
For the record - for a period it was laminated, and then it was forbidden to laminate it (as forgeries were somewhat simpler with the laminated one, though I don't know the details).
Old ID card (paper, large, duration - theorical - 5 years, then extended to 10 years, practically indestructible, i.e. they actually lasted the 5 or 10 years):
New ID card (electronic, credit card size, with chip[1], duration - theorical - 10 years, usually illegible after 2 or 3 years in a wallet unless you use a protective cover):
And whether you get the one or the other may depend on the city (comune) as most will use all the empty paper documents they have in storage before starting issuing the new electronic format.
[1] for which noone or nearly noone has a reader BTW, the whole stuff is somehow experimental, even now that we have an app (Android only):
Can you detail which "most" of Europe you are talking about?
In Italy, while obviously you have to produce an ID card, there is no way that it can be checked online by "an employer", only Police (and Carabinieri) can do those checks, and of course ony for Italian issued ID's, moreover in some other businesses besides SIM card selling where the ID is needed (as an example hotels, AirBnB's and similar, car or tools renting, etc.) the actual employee never had a formal, official training to recognize forged ID's so everything is demanded to the single employee common sense and experience/knowledge (often zero or next to zero).
Particularly with "foreign" or "uncommon" pieces of ID's even if Italian (besides the "normal" ID cards and passports there are a number of other documents that have ID value) it is extremely difficult to understand if it is forged.
In UK AFAIK there is no national ID card, so you are limited to passport and/or (if valid for the scope) the driver license.