Irrelevant to the question you ask, but how does your friend know that her card was 'skimmed' at a distance? It's relatively rare for contactless cards, and in the UK at least a never-used contactless card would have to be authorised by a PIN the first time. Authorisation by signature has died out completely.

How To Spot A Credit Card Skimmer (US)
Contactless Cards (US)

I can think of legal uses for devices that read contactless (NFC) devices, which would include cards, at a distance. And something that is legal in one country can be illegal in another - guns for instance,