The upside of checking some luggage is that, if you get stuck in security of whatever, the plane cannot leave until they’ve found and unloaded your bags, so you get a somewhat better chance of making the flight. Waiting five minutes for you to arrive is better than the cost and time of unloading the hold which might cost them their take-off slot entirely.
There were real devices on sale for a while a few years back. Then the air safety people insisted that the batteries had to be removable during flight, which rather killed the whole concept stone dead.
Card skimmers don’t work with modern contactless and chip-and-pin systems as used in most of the world. In many countries, the magnetic strip is blank or absent these days. The chip authenticates a single transaction, so there is no data to steal from the card.
When I go in grocery stores, there is very little cash passing hands. It’s all contactless or card payments. Not just in Europe and the UK, it was the same in Brazil last month. The world has moved on, probably pushed by Covid fears of contaminated money.
A few weeks ago in Switzerland I needed a surgical dressing changed and couldn’t manage it myself. I went to the local minor-injuries clinic near my home. A nurse did the job and didn’t even want to know my name or see my insurance card, though Switzerland is also an insurance-based system.
Why does he care? He doesn’t do any more work on Monday than Sunday. Or is it because Jon is out at work?