As of April 5, SUTEL implemented a blacklist for stolen phones. Over 800 mobile operators in 219 countries use the blacklist to report stolen phones. Once blacklisted, a phone cannot be activated by any of the cooperating mobile operators.

To report a stolen phone in Costa Rica, call your mobile operator at these numbers:

Kolbi/ICE: 1193
TuYo Movil: 1718
Movistar: 1693
FullMovil: 555 from FullMovil phone, 905-fullmovil (905-385566845) from other phones
Claro: *10 from Claro phone, 7002-7002 from other phones

It really helps if you know the IMEI number of the stolen phone. You can retrieve the number from your phone by dialing *#06#. You should record this number and keep it in a safe place.

As of today, I have not received clarification from SUTEL regarding phones that are not certified by SUTEL. A non-certified phone is any unlocked GSM phone that was not purchased through an authorized cellphone dealer in Costa Rica. For these phones, you will definitely need the IMEI number, as it is not recorded in the SUTEL database.

A future article will cover the differences between certified and non-certified phones. In that article, I will provide an update on reporting stolen non-certified phones.