Ebay and the like
I have bought a few fake Prolific UARTs from "eBay and the likes". They worked. One I destroyed, another I thought I had destroyed

Decapped both, each different. Looked at zeptobars pictures of two another PL2303 dies, neither was like mine.
I also decapped some fake DS18B20 and found two different variants too. One of them was atrocious garbage, the other just crappy.
It's called Chinese roulette for a reason

You never know what you get.