I think the word "scam" gets thrown around too loosely these days but to answer your questions, no, legit mining companies are not scams. There are some HYIP sites that proclaim they are using mining as a means for everyone who invests makes money but a real mining operation is not a scam. Some HYiP sites that proclaim they mine can be. Some of the better cloud Mining companies are Genesis Mining, HashFlare, Hashing24 and NiceHash.