In India the situation is far more interesting/ hair raising. Because ours is one of the smallest market quantity wise, we used to and still ocassionally do get rejects from the IC manufacturers and other big buyers. So we had '51 chips whose stack started from 07H and not 08H, locks that could be broken under certain programming conditions and so on. At times very educating. But because of internet, we can now catch on very fast, usually on a forum such as this, one of the pioneers has already warned us or atleast the company website.
But also I must say in praise of Philips and Microchip, they have appointed small level dealers, who are happy to sell to us authentic stuff in small quantities, even 5 pcs.