This is one of the things i hate. The OP creates hidden referral link and think that someone can tap it and doesn`t see that he becomes a referral. I saw lots of review sites with referral links and if they have high quality content and open referral links(sometimes they even write about it) - i often becomes their referral. But in this situation i don`t see content and any honesty from the OP.
Yeah, not cool. Either be direct or just put both ref and non-ref links.
This short links are used for statistic tracking purposes

Surely. And the referral links are used to analyze how much real users visit your site.
Why don`t you add a big banner that all links are referral links? It will be honestly and in such a way you can continue using short links for "statistic tracking purposes".
But i`m sure that you willn`t do it.