Yes cloud mining are almost all scam no must be away from them first off all and if you are not finding a trustable place to invest then there is no need to invest by taking risk because just collecting bitcoins is also a type of investement becuase in future its price gonna increase for sure.
That's true, bitcoin itself is an investment. that's why i just hold on to most of my coins and spend a few from time to time.
Yeah holding them is much safe in compare to investing it, but if we can manage to invest is potential altcoins then it will help us in giving good returns on our investments.