What to Do If Your Phone Is Lost or Stolen in Brazil

I live in Brazil, where phone theft is common enough that it pays to know the steps before you need them. This tutorial is the checklist I keep for that moment. It covers the tools every Android phone has, Samsung’s in particular because that is what I use, and the Brazilian side: the mobile operator, Anatel’s national blocklist of stolen phones, the federal Celular Seguro programme and the police report (boletim de ocorrência).

Every step below was checked against the official pages of Samsung, Google, Anatel and the Ministry of Justice (Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública, MJSP) on 21 October 2026. Menus and names change often; when something does not match, the linked page is the authority.

The order matters

Two things pull in opposite directions:

• Erasing the phone needs it online. Google’s Find Hub can only lock or erase a phone that is switched on and connected to mobile data or Wi-Fi,¹ and Samsung Find’s commands reach the phone the same way. A phone that is off or disconnected only shows its last known location.
• Blocking the line takes it offline. Once the operator blocks the chip, the phone has no mobile data, and a blocked IMEI cannot connect to any Brazilian mobile network.²

So deal with the phone itself first, while it may still be connected, and block the line and the device straight after. If the phone was stolen rather than lost, do it all in the same hour: the sooner the line is blocked, the less time anyone has to use it.

Step 1: Lock and erase the phone

Use another phone or a computer. There are two services, and a Samsung phone signed in to a Google account appears in both, so if one fails, try the other.

Samsung Find

1. Go to samsungfind.samsung.com and sign in with the Samsung account used on the lost phone.³
2. Select the phone. The map shows where it is, or its last known location if Send last location was turned on.
3. If it may be nearby, ring it.
4. Turn on Lost mode: it locks the screen, shows a message and contact details, and restricts access to the phone’s features. Locking the phone this way also locks Samsung Wallet.⁴
5. If you will not get it back, choose Erase data. This resets the phone to factory settings and deletes everything on it. It is only available on the website, not in the app.³

The sign-in problem. If your Samsung account uses two-step verification and the codes come from an authenticator app on the phone that is now missing, you cannot receive a code. That is exactly what happened to me. Use one of the account’s backup codes instead: one-time codes created when two-step verification is set up, meant for when the other methods fail.⁵ If you have never saved them, see Prepare now.

Google Find Hub

Google’s service, formerly Find My Device, works for any Android phone with a Google account.¹

1. Go to android.com/find and sign in with the Google account on the lost phone.
2. Select the phone. You can play a sound (full volume for five minutes, even on silent), mark it as lost, which locks it with its PIN, pattern or password and lets you add a message and contact number, or factory reset it.
3. Next to the phone’s name, open the settings to see its IMEI. Write it down: the operator may ask for it in the next step.

Erasing has a cost on both services: after a factory reset, the phone no longer appears in Find Hub, and Samsung warns that location and remote control may stop working.¹³ Erase once you are ready to give up on finding it. Whoever has the phone still cannot use it afterwards without your Google account password.¹

Step 2: Block the line and the device

There are two separate blocks, and it is worth knowing what each one does:²

You want both. There are two ways to get them.

Through Celular Seguro

Celular Seguro is a federal programme run by the MJSP with Anatel, the operators and the banks’ federation, Febraban. A single alert sent through its app or website reaches every participant at once: the operators block the line and the IMEI, and partner banks block access to your accounts in their apps.⁶⁷

1. Sign in at celularseguro.mj.gov.br with your gov.br account, from any phone or computer.
2. Choose Emitir Alerta (send alert), select the phone number and fill in the details of what happened.
3. Choose the kind of block:⁷
   • Modo recuperação (recovery mode) blocks the line and your partner bank accounts, but not the phone. If the phone is later used with another chip, the operator reports the new number, so the police have a chance of recovering it.
   • Bloqueio Total (total block) also blocks the IMEI. The phone becomes useless, but also harder for the police to trace.
4. Keep the protocol number it gives you. You will need it to undo anything.

Three conditions decide whether it works:⁷

• The line must be in your CPF. Operators block only when the name and CPF registered in Celular Seguro match the line’s holder at the operator. A line in someone else’s name gets no block from the operator at all.
• Registering the phone beforehand makes it a one-tap job. You can send an alert without having registered, but a registered phone and a registered pessoa de confiança (trusted person), who can send the alert for you, make the moment much easier.
• Only the operators listed in the app block through it. If yours is not listed, the alert only blocks the bank accounts; contact the operator directly for the line.

The choice cannot be changed or undone in the app afterwards.

Through the operator

Without Celular Seguro, call your operator on any of its channels and ask for both blocks. Anatel says to give the number of the line that was in the phone, the date and time of the loss or theft, and details that confirm who you are; with that, the operator finds the IMEI itself and adds it to the CEMI.² Have the IMEI from Find Hub at hand anyway. For a phone with two SIM slots, every IMEI must be blocked, even for a slot that was never used.

Keeping your number

Blocking the line does not cancel it. Ask the operator for a new chip with the same number. In my experience this is easiest in one of the operator’s own stores, which is also where any block placed through Celular Seguro has to be undone.⁷

Step 3: Protect your accounts

The phone was the key to most of your accounts: e-mail, banks, and the authenticator app for everything else.

• Banks. Partner banks block their apps on a Celular Seguro alert, but not every bank is a partner. Call each bank whose app was on the phone. If the phone had cards in a digital wallet and you could not lock it, Samsung’s advice is to call the number on the back of the physical card.⁴
• E-mail first, then the rest. Change the password of your Google account and your Samsung account, then of every e-mail account on the phone. E-mail is how almost every other password is reset, so whoever controls it controls the rest. Google’s help page for lost phones links to its checklist for securing the account.¹
• Sign the phone out. In your Google account’s device list, and in apps that show where you are signed in, remove the lost phone.

Step 4: File a police report

Register a boletim de ocorrência (BO) with the Polícia Civil of your state, either at a police station or online through the state’s delegacia virtual. A Celular Seguro alert does not replace the BO; the MJSP is explicit about that.⁷ The report is the document that proves the phone was stolen, for insurance, for disputing charges, and for the police if the phone turns up. All 26 states and the Federal District feed a shared national database of stolen phones, the Banco Nacional de Celulares com Restrição.⁷

If you get the phone back

• Line and IMEI: only the person who asked for the block can ask to undo it, through the police or the operator.² A block placed through Celular Seguro is undone in person at one of the operator’s own stores, not a reseller.⁷
• Banks: each bank unblocks its own app; Celular Seguro does not do it for you.⁷
• An erased phone asks for your Google account password before it can be used again.¹

Prepare now, before it happens

Every step above is easier with a little preparation, and some are impossible without it:

1. Write down the IMEI. Dial *#06# to show it; it is also on the box.⁷ A dual-SIM phone shows two.
2. Register in Celular Seguro. Add the phone and line, and at least one pessoa de confiança, who can send the alert if you cannot.⁷
3. Save your backup codes somewhere other than the phone. Both Google and Samsung offer one-time backup codes for two-step verification.⁸⁵ Google suggests keeping them with your passport or other important documents. If your authenticator app lives only on your phone, these codes are how you sign in to find it.
4. Check that finding is turned on. On a Samsung phone, under Settings > Security and privacy > Lost device protection > Find My Mobile, turn on finding, Send last location and Offline finding, so nearby Galaxy devices can help locate it even when it is offline.³
5. Use a screen lock. Find Hub locks the phone with its PIN, pattern or password, and its network of other Android devices only helps find a phone that has one.¹

References