[alphabetter]

Exactly this. As a British English speaker that works a lot with the US it was an early learning.

In British English a "scheme" has no negative connotations. It's commonly used in all kinds of legitimate places - for example the company you work at will have a "pension scheme".

In U.S. English it has a connotation that it is nefarious in some way.

[sentientslug]

Yeah, this always throws me off. In American English I’d always use the word “program” instead.