If you wanted to set up a completely fake identity, how would you go about it?

Get put into “Witness Protection” !

Is there something we should know about you @elbanditoroso? Or rather, not know?

@chyna Ha, no. I was watching a rerun of some crime/.detective movie over the weekend, and part of the plot was that a guy basically faked a new identity.

In the movies they make it sound real easy – I wondered how hard it was in real life.

Only way to get that, that I can think of, is to ask the most dodgy person in my circle to ask the most dodgy person in their circle, if there’s someone they know that I can buy the whole “fake identity package” from.

The easiest way to do that, is to die and get reincarnated.
The drawback being, that most people lose all their memories in the process.

Using your Tor browser go and search “dark web” to find someone who will supply papers for a fee. $5000?
You might start in a third world country and then move over to a first world country after a year or two. .

It probably can still be done. But first I’d like an answer to the question of whether or not it should be legally allowed.

“Legally”, it’s not allowed. But I don’t think the OP mentioned making it legal. You know the guvmint doesn’t like fake ID’s, unless of course they are the ones that generated it.

Go to San Diego. Buy a rattly old pickup, blue and rusty.
Very early in the morning drive around until you see a bunch of Mexican guys sitting together. Ask if they are looking for work.
When you get a group that will hop in back, drive away from any looky Lous. When you find a good spot to stop, bring out some Coronas and pass them around, then hold up a Ben, and ask who knows somebody can hook you up.

Don’t tell anyone I told you.

Well, if you mean “fake” as in “not your original” identity, in order to, for example disappear from regular sight of family and/or abusers, it can be done legally: https://m.wikihow.com/Change-Your-Identity.