Now that I am vaccinated I went out with some neighbors to a sports bar to watch Baylor-Gonzaga. Some teenagers were in the group. One girl who is not yet 17 ordered a wine. I was at the other end of the long table but I saw that she was carded, but got her wine. No one at the table seemed to care. I later found out that her 21 year old sister applied for a replacement license and gave the 16 year old the "lost" license. I guess the younger girl looked close enough to her older sister at the same age.
I wonder how prevalent this scam is?


Depends on the DMV how complex their system is.
I did the same thing when I was in college with an older friend. It was weird we didn’t look all that similar in person but his photo on the license was spot on for me. We also had the same color eyes, hair and even same hair cut. Only issue on the license I was 5 inches taller than him/his height on the license. Back then I had a credit card and got an “extra card” in “his” name so I had some back up identification if anyone ever gave me a hard time in a bar. He also gave me his old university student ID. After I turned 21 I handed the ID down to another guy with the original guys permission.
Always worked except for one time at a college bar the door man said “can’t let you in, I have class with this guy,” and another time on vacation some Indian guy at a liquor store said “I don’t think this is really you,” 19 year old me was shitting my pants but he sold me the liquor and gave me my ID back.
Later I know a few friends who went as far as going and taking their actual photo on their cousins/sisters/friends ID at the DMV, but that stopped because if one person went, then another went later the computer flew a red flag because it noticed a difference in facial features. I know one guy who did this in high school and even bought brown contact lenses to hide his blue eyes so he’d match his cousins ID. Who buys brown contact lenses? A high school kid who wants to buy booze that’s who!