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