The IRS takes iTunes cards?

Social scientists have devoted countless hours of research to explain whey senior citizens are more susceptible to scam artists. The AARP has even created ElderWatch to alert seniors to potentially fraudulent pitches and to publicize common techniques of con artists targeting older Americans.

Turns out, however, that most seniors may not be the doddering marks of traditional stereotype. Instead, it’s their grandchildren we need to worry about.

On Tuesday, the Better Business Bureau released a study revealing that millennials are far more likely to be scammed than the elderly. More than 30 percent of those between the ages of 25 and 34 admitted losing money in a racket, researchers found. The number was 15 percent for 18- to 24-year-olds.

At the same time, just 5 percent of people older than 75 reported losing money in a scam. The figure was under 10 percent for those between 55 and 74.

“Of the swindles millennials fell for and lost money in,” USA Today reported, “20 percent were online purchase scams and 10 percent were employment scams, the BBB found.”

The Better Business Bureau’s analysts attributed the findings, in part to “optimism bias,” the belief that other people are more vulnerable than we are. It’s a fancy way of saying that young people think they’re indestructible and too smart to get taken.

“We are all at risk,” said Emma Fletcher, co-author of the study, “but younger and more educated individuals are actually more likely to be scammed.”

Surely another factor in the study’s findings is the internet, which is awash in mountebanks, charlatans and swindlers. Millennials have grown up glued to their electronic devices and may be less likely to bring a healthy dose of skepticism to questionable online content.

“Millennials do not get into the details of offers,” Jason Dorsey, co-founder of a research firm in Texas, told USA Today. “They don’t fact-check the validity of offers, like other generations do. They just take it to be true. … They don’t know the IRS doesn’t reach out to you via Facebook and you wouldn’t pay the IRS with iTunes cards.”

Perhaps all this is just more confirmation of George Bernard Shaw’s observation that “youth is wasted on the young.” The good news for millennials, though, is that they’ll eventually grow out of it.