Actually, forgers don't need to do anything extraordinary to produce these fake cards. According to the article that OP links to at the beginning, they just pus

Actually, forgers don't need to do anything extraordinary to produce these fake cards. According to the article that OP links to at the beginning, they just push some buttons on the same machines that make genuine cards. > Very low serial numbers, like very low MAC ID addresses, are a hallmark of the "ghost shift", i.e. the shift that happens very late at night when a rouge worker enters the factory and runs the production machine off the books. Significantly, ghost shifts are often run using marginal material that would normally be disposed of but were intercepted on the way to the grinder. As a result, the markings and characteristics of the material often look absolutely authentic, because the ghost material is a product of the same line as genuine material.