I encountered the charity petition, with the kids pretending to be deaf and everything, in Berlin. The scam was slightly different, after you signed the petition (under duress, they were very pushy) they’d move their hand to show the right-most column on the petition: “donation”. All the people above you (with a remarkably similar handwriting) donated between 5 and 20€.
I refused to sign the first time I saw them, the story on the paper seemed fake, they knew no sign language (I do) and were just too pushy. The next day I saw different kids with the same paper. I took the guys picture… He was not amused 
Followed me around for the length of the square, at first still pretending to be deaf, later even giving that up and shouting abuse. I sent the picture to the local police, I hope he found a better way to make money by now 
