Toronto police say five people are facing fraud charges in connection to a scheme involving stolen debit card data and TTC Metropasses.

At a news conference Tuesday morning, police said the stolen debit cards were used to purchase legitimate monthly passes for the city's public transit system.

The Metropasses were then sold for a profit.

Financial Crimes Unit Staff Insp. Mark Russell told reporters the charges follow a complicated investigation.

"We started to accumulate images of the suspects and identified trends and patterns in their usage and the routes they would take when they were using the skim cards," Russell said.

"About two weeks ago we developed an operational plan with the financial crimes unit and started conducting surveillance last week."

Police said there are approximately $180,000 in losses associated with the scheme, although the specific total value of the fraud is yet to be determined.

At the time of their arrest, police said four of the suspects were found in possession of 168 counterfeit debit cards and 29 TTC monthly passes.