but someone buying the product has no idea and never made the choice to use a fake chip!
Endusers usually have warranty. They can return their product and get a working one. Damages are for the company that
decided to go with fake chips.
You're not going to win this fight so don't even try. You're just expending energy you could be using to jerk off to FTDI datasheets (or whatever else you do for fun).
Why aren't you going to win? Glad you asked! Two reasons:
1) You're wrong. Fun Fact: Even reputable supplies such as DigiKey have been duped by fake chips before! On top of that, prior to FTDIgate, they provided no way (short of ordering directly from through them) to verify if a chip was legit or not.
Aside from that, punishing end users of a product that the fake chip went into is bad form. Affected devices could have been 5+ years old, well out of any warranty or return period. (Remember that the designer of the product may not have even known the chips were fake.)
Keep in mind the fact they pushed this driver to Windows Update, which auto-installed on many systems, essentially bricking the devices (at least, as far as Joe Blow is concerned).
2) The anti-FTDI army is massive and will wear you down by sheer attrition.