I was halfway through writing a perfectly reasonable blog post about something else entirely when my phone buzzed with a breaking news alert. Amazon has launched a nationwide GLP - 1 weight - loss program. Injections. Sold by the same people who sell me cat food and USB - C cables.

My first thought wasn't about the medical implications. It wasn't about pricing or accessibility. It was: "Great. Now I have to worry about fake reviews for prescription drugs."

Maybe that says more about me than about Amazon. But honestly? I don't think it does.

Trust has been broken for years

Amazon spent the last decade letting its review system rot. Fake reviews, incentivised reviews, products with 4.8 stars that turn out to be dangerously flimsy. I bought a supposedly ergonomic potato peeler last year that snapped in half on the third use. It had over a thousand five - star ratings. I should have known better.

And now they want me to trust them with medication?

I'm not saying the GLP - 1 program is a scam. I'm saying the platform it sits on has a credibility problem. When you've spent years training your customers to ignore ratings and treat every listing with suspicion, you can't just flip a switch and expect people to feel safe buying injectable drugs.

Anyway, I got distracted by a neighbour's leaf blower. Bloody thing rattles the windows every single April afternoon. Back to the point.

This is where Review Radar comes in

I built Review Radar for Amazon because I got sick of wondering which reviews were real. It scans Amazon product pages, analyses review patterns, and gives you a trust score. It flags suspicious clusters of five - star ratings, incentivised review language, and weird timing patterns that suggest a seller paid for a ratings bump.

It works fine for potato peelers and bike lights. But for weight - loss medication? I genuinely don't know if the same signals apply. Medical products have different regulatory hurdles. Different return policies. Different consequences if the review system fails.

The free version will still catch the obvious nonsense. The Pro tier (£15/year) adds deeper analysis and historical tracking. But I'm honest enough to say: this is new territory. I'm watching as closely as you are.

The real problem isn't reviews

Look, I'm a developer. I make browser extensions. I'm not a doctor and I'm not a policy expert. But it seems obvious that the problem with Amazon selling prescription medication isn't just about fake reviews. It's about the entire culture of the platform.

Amazon is built for speed and convenience. Click, buy, delivered tomorrow. Medical decisions shouldn't work like that. They should involve a conversation with someone who knows what they're talking about. A pause. A second thought.

But Amazon has trained us not to pause. That's the whole business model.

I'll probably try the program myself at some point. Not because I trust Amazon, but because I'm curious how bad the user experience actually is. Maybe it's fine. Maybe the medical professionals involved have enough independence to keep things safe. I don't know.

What I do know is that I opened the Amazon app ten minutes ago to check something about this and immediately forgot what I was doing. Scrolled past three sponsored listings, two recipes, and a recommendation for a dehumidifier. That's the Amazon experience in a nutshell. You go in for something serious and end up buying a gadget you didn't need.

The leaf blower finally stopped. The cat is judging me from the windowsill. I think I need to go make a cup of tea and stop doom - scrolling health news. If you're considering the GLP - 1 program, just... be careful. Read the fine print. And maybe install a review checker first. Just in case.