A report released by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) found that businesses around the world lose roughly $2.9 trillion as the result of employee fraud each year.
In addition, the study found that 30 percent of the companies that had been victims of fraud at the hands of their own employees had less than 100 employees.
The U.S. companies with 100 employees or fewer that were victims of employee fraud suffered a median loss of $150,000, ACFE found.
The fact that the median losses for companies with 100 employees or less was almost the same as the median loss for companies of all sizes indicates that small organizations are particularly vulnerable to employee fraud, said ACFE spokesman Scott Patterson.
But experts say that there are several things that small companies can do to protect themselves from dishonest employees, including looking at accounting and payments system to determine if someone like a bookkeeper, office manager, or salesman would have an opportunity to initiate and cover up a fraudulent transaction.
Experts also say that companies may want to hire an audit firm every few years to examine their books.